Naira Weakens Against Dollar Across FX Segments

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange market against the United States Dollar as it moved downwards by 0.2 per cent or N1 to sell at N617/$1 compared with the previous day’s N616/$1.

This came as the US Dollar strengthened in the global market after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points, in what has been the highest level in 28 years.

This also affected the value of the domestic currency against the American currency at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the FX market as it lost 50 kobo or 0.12 per cent to sell at N420.50/$1 compared with the previous day’s N420/$1.

The Naira was depressed yesterday amid an increase in the demand for forex at the investors’ segment, according to data gathered from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.

Transactions valued at $136.35 million were carried out during the trading day compared with the $124.62 million executed at the midweek session, indicating an expansion by $11.73 million or 9.4 per cent.

Equally, the local currency weakened against the Pound Sterling at the interbank segment of the forex market yesterday by N2.75 to trade at N505.19/£1 compared to the previously traded rate of N502.44/£1.

In the same vein, the domestic currency depreciated against the Euro by N2.25 gain to sell at N432.34/€1 in contrast to the N434.59/€1 it was quoted on Wednesday.

As for the digital currency market, there was a large bearish movement on the back of the increase in the key interest rates by the US Federal Reserve to combat rising inflation.

Solana (SOL) went down by 8.7 per cent to trade at $30.78, Ethereum (ETH) saw an 8.6 per cent depreciation to trade at $1,092.37, TerraClassicUSD (USTC) dropped 6.9 per cent to $0.0071, Bitcoin (BTC) lost 6.6 per cent to settle at $20,645.38, while Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 5.4 per cent depreciation to trade at $216.02.

Further, Litecoin (LTC) declined by 5.4 per cent to $46.29, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 5.3 per cent to sell at $0.0567, Cardano (ADA) decreased by 4.2 per cent to $0.4946, Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 2.2 per cent to trade at $0.3291 and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) shed 0.01 per cent to sell for $0.9988.