By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira maintained stability at both the parallel market as well as the interbank segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Thursday, December 5, 2019.
At the close of transactions yesterday, the local currency remained unchanged against the United States Dollar at the official exchange window of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the interbank, trading at N306.95/$1, the same rate it was exchanged the previous session.
It is important to note that the interbank exchange rate is the window where federal government and its agencies use to convert the two currencies; the Naira and the Dollar for their transactions.
At the parallel market, also known as the black market, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar remained at the rate it was transacted on Wednesday. At the close of business on Thursday, the local currency was sold at the market at N360/$1.
At the same market window, the domestic currency also traded flat against the Euro, closing on Thursday at the black market at N396/€1, the same rate it was traded during the midweek session.
However, the Nigerian currency depreciated against the British Pound Sterling at the parallel market by N1 yesterday to quote at N467/£1 against N466/£1 it was sold the previous day.
At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the forex market on Thursday, activities of Investors drove exchange rate higher to weaken the Naira at the close of business.
Business Post reports that the local currency depreciated during the session by 46 kobo or 0.13 percent to trade at N363.07/$1 against N362.61/$1 it went for on Wednesday at the same window.
According to data from FMDQ, the market turnover at the segment reduced by 46.8 percent or $213.7 million yesterday to $242.76 million from $456.46 million at the previous session.
The forex market would be anticipating an intervention from the central bank today to meet demands of customers, especially investors having trades with China.
Dipo Olowookere