By Adedapo Adesanya
The situation of things at the foreign exchange (forex) market on Monday, July 15, was a mixed affair as the performance of the Naira against the Dollar varied across segments of the market.
At the parallel market, the exchange rate of the local currency to the foreign currency remained stable as it closed at N361.50/$
On the other hand, at the interbank market, the Naira appreciated against the Dollar by 5 kobo or 0.02 percent, closing at N306.95 yesterday against N307 it was exchanged in the previous session.
Data sourced from the Financial Market Dealers Quote (FMDQ) by Business Post Nigeria indicated that the local currency depreciated at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window by 43kobo or 0.12 percent.
At the close of business yesterday, the local currency closed at N361.10 per Dollar against N360.67 per Dollar it traded last Friday at the same market segment.
Information from the FMDQ further revealed that the volume of trades at the I&E segment yesterday increased by about 70 percent to $161.9 million.
According to Coronation Merchant Bank, the I&E market has attracted $18.79 billion from foreign investors in the last seven months.
The report further showed that foreign portfolio investment (FPI) constituted 65.40 percent of the inflows, representing $12.29 billion. It said the CBN’s supply of dollar to the forex window has been 3.02 percent of inflows or $0.57 billion.
The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, had earlier explained that the I&E window introduced in April 2017 allowed investors and exporters to purchase and sell foreign exchange at the prevailing market rate.
In May, Mr. Emefiele said that the segment attracted $48 billion worth of transactions to the economy and raise external reserves to $45 billion.
Modupe Gbadeyanka