Naira depreciates 0.67% at I&E, 2.33% at unofficial fx market

At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Monday, the Naira declined by 0.67 percent or N2.88 against the US dollar, signalling further pressure on the local currency after a few days of respite.

The local currency was traded at N431.00/$1 on the spot market yesterday, down from N428.12/$1 in the previous trading session.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange indicate that yesterday’s pressure on the domestic currency was caused by FX dealers’ inability to fulfil customer requests.

The value of trades recorded at the I&E window increased by $43.75 million or 60.8 per cent yesterday to $115.67 million from the $71.92 million quoted last Friday.

Also, in the peer-to-peer (P2P) segment, the value of the Naira to the Dollar also depreciated by N5 or 0.75 per cent to N674/$1 from N669/$1.

At the parallel market, the Nigerian currency lost N15 or 2.33 per cent against the greenback yesterday, closing at N660/$1 in contrast to the preceding trading day’s exchange rate of N645/$1, according to data harvested by Business Post.

In the interbank segment of the market, the Naira closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro on Monday at N508.02/£1 and N428.22/€1, respectively.

In the cryptocurrency market, five of the 10 digital coins tracked closed in the green territory, while four ended in the red zone, with one standing on the fence.

Dogecoin (DOGE) went up 3.5 per cent to sell at $0.0730, Ethereum (ETH) saw a 2.7 per cent rise to trade at $1,780.17, Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 0.6 per cent to settle at $62.36, Bitcoin (BTC) grew by 0.3 per cent to $23,848.36, while Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 0.04 per cent to trade at $0.3774.

On the losers’ angle, TerraUSD (UST) shed 4.3 per cent to close at $0.0309, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 1.2 per cent depreciation to trade at $325.19, Cardano (ADA) saw its value drop 1.0 per cent to $0.5343, and Solana (SOL) slid by 0.5 per cent to trade at $42.44, with the US Dollar Tether (USDT) unchanged as it closed at $1.00.