By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated further against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, January 11, selling below N1,000 at the close of transactions.
During the trading session, the local currency appreciated against the greenback by 19.2 per cent or N207.53 to close at N874.79/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,081.32/$1.
Similarly, the Nigerian Naira improved its value against the Pound Sterling on Thursday by N84.47 to trade at N1,134/£1 versus Wednesday’s closing price of N1,219.32/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N71.05 to sell at N977.26/€1, in contrast to the midweek session’s rate of N1,048.31/€1.
The value of transactions witnessed yesterday stood at $110.41 million, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, 54.5 per cent or $132.19 million lower than the $242.60 million transacted in the preceding session.
However, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment, the domestic currency weakened against the American currency yesterday by N10 to quote at N1,249/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,239/$1.
Also, the local currency depreciated against the US Dollar on Thursday by N10 to close at N1,255/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s exchange rate of N1,245/$1.
In the cryptocurrency market, momentum was largely sustained as investors looked to assess what the market impact of a bitcoin ETF might be.
Recall that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first-ever batch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds to come out of the US, allowing investors to get exposure to the value of the underlying asset without directly owning it.
ETFs trade on traditional stock exchanges, and their value should rise when the underlying asset increases in price, or fall if it decreases.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 0.2 per cent to close at $46,091.75, Ethereum (ETH) saw its value go up by 0.5 per cent to $2,597.79, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 3.6 per cent to $73.34, Cardano (ADA) increased by 2.4 per cent to $0.5837, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped by 2.0 per cent to sell for $311.88, and Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 1.6 per cent to $0.0843.
On the flip side, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 0.3 per cent to sell at $99.28, and Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.1 per cent slide to trade at $0.5983, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.
