The naira depreciated against the US dollar in official foreign exchange (FX) market as demand pressures increased after huge rally posted last week. The naira depreciated by 0.02% in the official window, closing at ₦1,533.63 per US dollar as market noticed absence of central bank interventions.
The Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) exhibited enhanced liquidity, with transactions fluctuating between N1,530 and N1,537 per greenback. The naira gained ₦10.00 to close at N1,645.00 in the parallel market as banks continue to offer customers opportunity to purchase foreign currency needed for business, personal travel allowance and well as other miscellaneous FX payment demand.
The CBN intervention however cracked the country’s foreign reserves which fell below $40 billion amidst concerns in the oil market.Oil prices declined by about 3%, reaching a two-week low, primarily due to losses in technology and energy sectors on Wall Street. This downturn followed news of Tariff contest between the United States and Colombia.
Brent crude traded around $76.50 per barrel, while WTI was priced around $72.60. Similarly, gold prices experienced a drop of over 1%, pulling back from near-record highs observed in the previous session.
This decline is attributed to investors liquidating their bullion positions amid a broader market sell-off triggered by heightened interest in DeepSeek’s AI innovations. Gold traded around $2,736.75 per ounce.