Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira value depreciated against the United States Dollar in the official and black markets on Thursday, but appreciated in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window of the foreign exchange (forex).
Data showed that the Nigerian Naira lost 5 Kobo or 0.01 per cent against the greenback in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) yesterday to settle at N461.40/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N461.35/$1.
This occurred amid a marginal decline in the value of FX transactions recorded in the trading session.
Business Post gathered from FMDQ Securities Exchange that the turnover of the day was $96.44 million compared with the $98.60 million recorded in the preceding session, representing a decline of 2.2 per cent or $2.16 million.
In the parallel market, the Naira depreciated against the American currency by N1 to trade at N752/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s exchange rate of N751/$1.
However, in the P2P segment, the local currency appreciated against the US currency by N2 to close at N764/$1, in contrast to the previous trading session’s N766/$1.
A look into the interbank window of the forex market revealed that the local currency closed stronger against the Pound Sterling during the session by N6.54 to settle at N551.23/£1 versus the midweek session’s value of N557.77/£1, and against the Euro, it gained 32 Kobo to quote at N489.09/€1 compared with the previous session’s N489.41/€1.
Meanwhile, the digital currency market was bearish on Thursday as investors reacted to the negative data from the United States, which showed that the country’s manufacturing sector contracted for a fourth straight month in February, which comes as consumer confidence also fell last month.
Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 4.8 per cent to trade at $22,396.42, Ethereum (ETH) slid by 4.7 per cent to $1,573.02, Litecoin (LTC) shed 8.2 per cent to sell for $89.37, Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 6.5 per cent to $0.0758, Cardano (ADA) went down by 5.9 per cent to $0.3364, Solana (SOL) recorded a 4.2 per cent slump to trade at $21.17, Ripple (XRP) decreased by 3.5 per cent to finish at $0.3664, and Binance Coin (BNB) went down by 3.1 per cent to $290.88, while Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at $1.00 apiece.
