Economy

Naira to Appreciate This Week Amidst Drop in Reserves, FPIs Inflows

Published

6 years ago

30/09/2019

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

There are strong indications that the Naira will appreciate at the foreign exchange (forex) market this week, analysts at Cowry Asset and Business Post have predicted.

According to Business Post analysts, the domestic currency will record a marginal gain against the Dollar in the four-day trading week despite the expected decline in the nation’s external reserves.

As at last Wednesday, data sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by Business Post showed that the reserves were at $42.1 billion from $42.2 billion in the previous day.

From our analysis, the local currency will get an unusual strength from the easing of pressure from the demand of FX from investors as well as exporters at their market segment.

In the past few days, Business Post has observed lower demand for the foreign currency at the I&E window as shown by the FMDQ, a platform which gives update on the daily turnover at the market.

Last Tuesday, the Naira depreciated after market demand for FX rose by 37 percent to trade at N362.29/$, and the next day, a 35.8 percent decline in the turnover left the local currency flat at N362.29/$.

On Thursday, the Naira lost 29 kobo to trade at N362.58/$ despite a marginal 9.2 percent drop in demand for FX at the I$E segment. But on Friday, the Naira appreciated to N362.02/$1 after gaining 56 kobo on 59.4 percent decline in the market turnover for the third straight session.

It was observed that the decrease in the turnover is attributed to the inflow of forex into the country from foreign portfolio investors, who are finding Nigerian markets attractive again especially with the low prices stocks are being traded at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as well as rising yields of bonds and treasury bills.

This point was buttressed by analysts at Cowry Asset, who said, “In the new week, we expect appreciation of the Naira against the USD across the market segments as seemingly renewed interest by foreign portfolio investors in local financial assets is further felt amid rate cut in US.”

Last week, Naira appreciated at the I&E to close at N362.02/$, but traded flat at the Bureau De Change as well as the parallel (black) markets, closing at N358.00/$ and N360.00/$ respectively.

Also, at the interbank segment, the domestic currency depreciated to N358.13/$ despite the weekly injections of $210 million by the CBN into the FX market via the Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS).

In the intervention, the apex bank allocated $100 million to Wholesale SMIS, $55 million to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and another $55 million for invisibles.

Meanwhile, the Naira/USD exchange rate fell (i.e. Naira appreciated) for most of the foreign exchange forward contracts – one month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months rates fell by 0.11 percent, 0.09 percent, 0.03 percent, 0.26 percent and 0.42 percent to close at N365.31/$, N368.73/$, N372.28/$, N382.97/$ and N409.45/$ respectively. However, spot rate was flattish at N306.95/$.

Economy

CSCS, Geo-Fluids, FrieslandCampina Lift NASD OTC Bourse by 0.62%

Published

16 hours ago

13/12/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

Three bellwether stocks lifted the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.62 per cent on Friday, December 12 with the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) jumping by 22.20 points to 3,600.43 points from 3,578.23 points.

In the same vein, the market capitalisation of the trading platform increased by N13.28 billion to close at N2.154 trillion from the previous day’s N2.140 trillion.

During the session, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc went up by N2.53 to close at N39.71 per share compared with the previous day’s N37.18 per share, Geo-Fluids Plc added 35 Kobo to its price to finish at N5.00 per unit versus Thursday’s closing price of N4.65 per unit, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc appreciated by 23 Kobo appreciation to sell at N60.23 per share versus N60.00 per share.

It was observed that yesterday, the price of Golden Capital Plc went down by N1.05 to N9.45 per unit from N10.50 per unit, and UBN Propertiy Plc declined by 21 Kobo to N2.01 per share from the N2.22 per share it was traded a day earlier.

There was a significant improvement in the level of activity for the day, as the volume of transactions increased by 6.2 per cent to 37.4 million units from the previous day’s 35.2 million units, the value of trades went up by 265.1 per cent to N4.9 billion from N1.4 billion, and the number of deals soared by 13.80 per cent to 33 deals from 29 deals.

Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc ended the last trading day of this week as the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units valued at N16.4 billion, the second spot was taken by Okitipupa Plc with 178.9 million units traded for N9.5 billion, and third space was occupied by a new comer in MRS Oil Plc with 36.1 million units worth N4.9 billion.

InfraCredit Plc also finished the session as the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units transacted for N16.4 billion, followed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 1.2 billion units valued at N420.3 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 537.0 million units sold for N524.9 million.

Economy

Guinness Nigeria, Others Buoy NGX Index 1.00% Growth

Published

16 hours ago

13/12/2025

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

The bullish run on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited continued on Friday with a further 1.00 per cent growth buoyed by gains recorded by Guinness Nigeria, Champion Breweries, and others.

Data showed that the consumer goods space expanded by 1.53 per cent during the last trading session of the week, as the insurance counter grew by 0.51 per cent, and the industrial goods sector marginally gained 0.01 per cent.

However, the banking index depreciated by 0.54 per cent due to a pocket of profit-taking, and the energy industry shrank by 0.09 per cent, while the commodity sector closed flat.

Guinness Nigeria gained 10.00 per cent to trade at N217.80, Morison Industries rose by 9.84 per cent to N4.69, Champion Breweries jumped by 9.69 per cent to N14.15, Austin Laz grew by 9.66 per cent to N2.27, and C&I Leasing appreciated by 9.62 per cent to N5.70.

Conversely, eTranzact lost 10.00 per cent to finish at N12.60, Chellarams slumped by 9.00 per cent to N13.20, Eunisell depleted by 9.89 per cent to N75.15, Africa Prudential moderated by 9.77 per cent to N12.00, and DAAR Communications decreased by 9.18 per cent to 89 Kobo.

The busiest stock on Friday was Access Holdings with 107.6 million units sold for N2.2 billion, Consolidated Hallmark traded 59.9 million units worth N245.8 million, Zenith Bank transacted 48.2 million units valued at N3.1 billion, Transcorp Power transacted 42.8 million units for N13.1 billion, and Champion Breweries exchanged 36.4 million units valued at N510.2 million.

At the close of business, a total of 602.8 million units worth N30.7 billion exchanged hands in 20,550 deals yesterday, in contrast to the 529.7 million units valued at N12.3 billion traded in 18,159 deals on Thursday, representing a surge in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 13.80 per cent, 149.59 per cent, and 13.17 per cent apiece.

Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) soared during the session by 1,485.89 points to 149,436.48 points from 147,950.59 points and the market capitalisation moved up by N945 billion to N95.264 trillion from N94.319 trillion.

Economy

Naira Chalks up 0.11% on USD at NAFEM as CBN Defends Market

Published

16 hours ago

13/12/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

An intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the foreign exchange (FX) market eased the pressure on the Naira on Friday.

The apex bank sold forex to banks and other authorised dealers in the official window to defend the domestic currency, helping to calm the FX demand pressure, with the Nigerian currency appreciating against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by 0.11 per cent or N1.57 to sell at N1,454.50/$1 compared with Thursday’s closing price of N1,456.07/$1.

Also, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N3.95 to close at N1,946.15/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,950.11/£1 but lost 10 Kobo on the Euro to quote at N1,706.46/€1 compared with the N1,706.36/€1 it was exchanged a day earlier.

At the black market segment, the Nigerian Naira maintained stability against the Dollar during the session at N1,470/$1 and also traded flat at N1,463/$1 at the GTBank forex counter.

Despite the sigh of relief, demand pressures outweighed the robust supply from the CBN and inflow from offshore players looking to participate at the OMO bills auction.

Gross FX reserves increased for the twenty fifth consecutive week, growing by a strong $396.84 million week-on-week to $45.44 billion.

As for the cryptocurrency market, it was down on Friday as pressure remained after Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Wednesday, which hinted at a possible rate cut pause in January. As a result, markets now expect only two rate cuts in 2026 instead of three.

However, Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee, who was against a December rate cut, said he expects more in 2026 than the current median projection.

Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 5.1 per cent to $3,090.61, Solana (SOL) declined by 4.5 per cent to $132.79, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 3.8 per cent to $0.4103, and Dogecoin (DOGE) dropped 2.5 per cent to trade at $0.1373.

In addition, Bitcoin (BTC) lost 2.4 per cent to sell at $90,342.74, Litecoin (LTC) tumbled by 1.9 per cent to $81.86, Binance Coin (BNB) fell by 0.6 per cent to $886.93, and Ripple (XRP) slipped by 0.5 per cent to $2.02, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.