Naira Withstands FX Demand Surge at I&E, But Falls to N640/$1 at P2P

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira continued its stellar start to the week at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (forex) market as it further appreciated against the American Dollar by 1.16 per cent or N4.95 on Tuesday, July 19 despite coming under a significant FX demand pressure.

Business Post reports that FX transactions worth $383.59 million were recorded at the spot market yesterday compared with the $95.58 million achieved in the preceding session, representing a $288.01 million or 301.3 per cent surge.

But in the midst of this pressure, the domestic currency performed stronger than the US Dollar at it was exchanged at N424.17/$1 compared with the previous session’s exchange rate of N429.12/$1.

However, this feat could not be replicated in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the forex market yesterday as the value of the Nigerian currency to its US counterpart depreciated by N11 or 1.75 per cent at it was quoted at N640/$1 in contrast to Monday’s value of N629/$1 and in the black market, the local currency lost N7 or 1.13 per cent against the Dollar as it closed at N625/$1 compared with the previous day’s N618/$1.

In the interbank market, the local currency maintained stability against the Pound Sterling and the Euro to close at N492.09/£1 and N416.15/€1 respectively.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market flourished on Tuesday, though two of the 10 coins tracked by this newspaper have lost more than 50 per cent this year.

Bitcoin (BTC) gained 6.9 per cent to exchange for $23,422.83, Cardano (ADA) went up by 9.8 per cent to sell at $0.5258, Ripple (XRP) rose by 5.9 per cent to $0.3769, Solana (SOL) recorded a 5.2 per cent appreciation to sell at $45.50, Dogecoin (DOGE) improved by 5.1 per cent to trade $0.0697, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 3.6 per cent to quote at $267.89, Litecoin (LTC) climbed higher by 3.2 per cent to sell at $58.34, Ethereum (ETH) chalked up 2.6 per cent to settle at $1,558.52, the United States Dollar Tether (USDT) grew by 0.02 per cent to trade at $1.00, while TerraClassicUSD (UST) depreciated during the session by 1.9 per cent to close at $0.0427.