By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian currency gained on the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Monday but lost in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) and black market segments of the market.
In the official exchange rate window, the value of the local currency yesterday was bolstered by 0.09 per cent or 40 Kobo against the greenback to N461.50/$1 from last Friday’s value of N461.90/$1.
The strengthening of the Naira happened despite a surge in the demand for forex at the spot market during the session by 175.1 per cent or $126.42 million as FX transactions worth $198.60 million were executed compared with the $72.18 million achieved in the last session.
However, this feat was not replicated in the P2P window, where the Nigerian Naira shed N5 against the American Dollar on Monday to trade at N757/$1, in contrast to the previous session’s rate of N752/$1.
Also, in the interbank segment of the market, the Naira lost against Pound Sterling yesterday by N2.89 to settle at N554.07/£1 versus N551.18/£1 and depreciated by N3.97 on the Euro to quote at N491.72/€1 versus N487.75/€1.
Likewise, in the parallel market, the domestic currency was weakened against the US Dollar by N2 to sell for N743/$1, in contrast to the previous trading day’s rate of N741/$1.
Meanwhile, some positive outcomes were recorded in the cryptocurrency market on Monday where the largest-valued coin, Bitcoin (BTC), and its rival, Ethereum (ETH), continued a stellar performance.
The ascent started last week after the market latched onto positive information from the US inflation report, which showed a considerable drop in consumer prices, an indicator of a good economy.
As a result, the cumulative value of all digital assets has once again reclaimed the key level of $1 trillion. This is the first time the wider crypto market has been valued this high since the beginning of November when the sudden collapse of FTX sent prices spiralling.
BTC rose 2.0 per cent to $21,299.47 as ETH also moved higher by 2.6 per cent to sell at $1,589.61, with Ripple (XRP) growing by 1.9 per cent to $0.3928.
Further, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 1.5 per cent increase to sell at $0.3928, and Solana (SOL) recorded a 1.2 per cent gain to quote at $23.63.
But Litecoin (LTC) dropped 0.7 per cent to trade at $86.92, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 0.6 per cent to $0.0846, and Binance Coin (BNB) lost 0.2 per cent to trade at $300.67, as the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained flat at $1.00 each.
