The Naira showed no sign of weakness at the various segments of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Wednesday, improving its value against the United States Dollar at the close of business.
In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) window yesterday, the Nigerian currency chalked up 28 Kobo or 0.02 per cent on its American counterpart in the official market to sell for N1,539.96/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N1,540.24/$1.
However, it tumbled against the Pound Sterling in the spot market at midweek by 64 Kobo to close at N2,084.02/£1 versus Tuesday’s price of N2,083.38/£1 and crashed by N5.79 against the Euro to settle at N1,766.68/€1 compared with the N1,760.89/€1 it was sold a day earlier.
In the parallel market, the Naira maintained stability against the greenback for another trading session on Wednesday at N1,610/$1.
The local currency has appreciated at the domestic FX market in the last two weeks, suggesting a relatively steady forex supply, supported by sustained interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This has beat forecasts from market analysts, particularly celebrated economist and Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Limited, Mr Bismarck Rewane, who recently projected that the Naira would trade within N1,600/$1 -N1,650/$1 in the near term.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market witnessed drop in prices of tokens, driven by profit-taking after news broke out of lower-than-expected US inflation data.
Considering the historic market sentiments, whenever US inflation cools, the possibility of the US Federal Reserve cutting rates is relatively higher.
Yesterday, Dogecoin (DOGE) slumped by 4.8 per cent to sell at $0.1911, Cardano (ADA) fell by 4.1 per cent to $0.6921, Solana (SOL) declined by 3.8 per cent to $159.58, and Litecoin (LTC) went down by 1.9 per cent to $90.00.
Further, Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 1.7 per cent to $2.24, Bitcoin (BTC) shrank by 1.6 per cent to $107,904.05, Ethereum (ETH) tumbled by 0.9 per cent to $2,772.05, and Binance Coin (BNB) lost 0.4 per cent to quote at $667.84, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.