Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria reacted negatively to the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 100 basis points on Tuesday to 17.5 per cent, making the cost of borrowing more expensive.
As the market received this news, the Naira depreciated against the United States Dollar at the various segments of the forex market.
In the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) segment, the local currency lost N10 against the greenback yesterday to trade at N770/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N760/$1.
Also, in the parallel market, the Nigerian currency depreciated by N2 against its American counterpart during the session to settle at N749/$1, in contrast to Monday’s value of N747/$1.
Similarly, in the interbank segment, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling by N4.50 to trade at N567.21/£1 versus N562.71/£1, and declined by N7.44 against the Euro to close at N500.53/€1, in contrast to Monday’s rate of N493.09/€1.
In the same vein, the Naira declined by 37 Kobo or 0.08 per cent against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment to quote at N462.00/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N461.63/$1.
The value of the domestic currency fell in the market segment amid a decline in the forex turnover by $20.73 million or 15.6 per cent to $112.04 million from $132.77 million.
In the cryptocurrency market, there was a mixed outcome among the benchmarked tokens as investors cooled away despite positive economic indicators amid continued fear for the crypto industry.
Ripple (XRP) lost 1.9 per cent to trade at $0.4218, Litecoin (LTC) went south by 1.3 per cent to $89.14, Ethereum (ETH) depleted by 0.9 per cent to sell at $1,616.39, and Dogecoin (DOGE) made a 0.3 per cent depreciation to quote at $0.0883.
However, Binance Coin (BNB) grew by 1.3 per cent to $310.23, Cardano (ADA) rose by 1.00 per cent to $0.3799, Bitcoin (BTC) made a 1.2 per cent gain to close at $16,843.86, Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 0.2 per cent to $23,011.73, and Solana (SOL) expanded by 0.1 per cent to $24.33, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.
