The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, August 28, by N1.58 or 0.1 per cent to N1,535.61 from the N1,537.19/$1 it was traded a day earlier.
However, the local currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N9.67 to trade at N2,076.42/£1 compared with the preceding day’s N2,066.75/£1 and lost N12.58 against the Euro to close at N1,781.93/€1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N1,781.93/€1.
In the parallel market, the exchange rate of the Naira and the Dollar remained unchanged yesterday at N1,545/$1.
Fresh injection of FX from investors further helped to ease demand pressure on the local currency as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) conducted another open market operation on Wednesday and offered N300 billion in OMO bills that will mature in 83 days for subscription.
After a successful outing earlier on Tuesday, the CBN floated another single-tenor OMO bill for subscription at the primary market. Foreign portfolio investors and local banks played actively again at the auction, which saw about a threefold subscription against the offer size.
Details from the auction results revealed that aggregate demand was robust, as reflected in a bid-to-offer ratio of over 290 per cent. Investment bankers said aggregate subscriptions reached N860 billion.
As for the cryptocurrency market, it was in red as traders carried out profit taking, turning to gold, which has found a boost over lower interest rates and weaker US Dollar.
Gold had neared its record high of $3,534 hit earlier this month on fears (now allayed) that Swiss gold bars would fall under punitive White House tariffs against Switzerland.
During the trading day, Ripple (XRP) slumped by 3.0 per cent to $2.90, Cardano (ADA) declined by 2.7 per cent to $0.8442, Ethereum (ETH) fell by 1.9 per cent to $4,472.12, Bitcoin (BTC) crumbled by 1.5 per cent to $111,198.46, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 1.4 per cent to $0.2201, and Litecoin (LTC) dipped by 0.7 per cent to $112.66.
Inversely, Solana (SOL) gained 2.2 per cent to sell at $215.01, and Binance Coin (BNB) expanded by 0.2 per cent to $870.28, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 apiece.