The Naira halted four consecutive sessions of depreciation on Thursday after its value improved against the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by 0.17 per cent or N2.63.
Data obtained from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the Nigerian currency was traded on the greenback yesterday by N1,548.47/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s rate of N1,551.10/$1.
However, it closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro during the trading day at N1,904.43/£1 and N1,600.79/€1, respectively.
As for the parallel market, the Naira depreciated against the Dollar yesterday by N20 to settle at N1,6770/$1 compared with the N1,650/$1 it was transacted a day earlier.
As for the cryptocurrency market, there was continued appreciation ahead of the inauguration of the US President-elect, Mr Donald Trump, who favours digital assets.
The biggest gainer remained Litecoin (LTC), which chalked up 16.6 per cent to trade at $140.06 spurred by prospective Litecoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) which could see inflows of up to $580 million if investors adopt them at the same rate as Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs.
The possibility came into focus on Thursday as market participants began sizing up the likelihood that LTC might become the third crypto asset to get its ETF in the US, after BTC and Ethereum (ETH).
Ripple (XRP) jumped by 7.3 per cent during the trading session to close at $3.33, Cardano (ADA) added 6.5 per cent to its value to finish at $1.13, Solana (SOL) rose by 4.9 per cent to quote at $212.67, Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded a value appreciation of 1.6 per cent to sell at $0.3854, BTC grew by 1.6 per cent to settle at $101,346.11, and Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.9 per cent to end at $717.23.
On the flip side, ETH depreciated by 0.4 per cent to trade at $3,336.68, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.