It was a bad day for the Nigerian Naira in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, January 7 as its value weakened further by 0.03 per cent or 45 Kobo to trade at N1,537.03/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N1,536.58/$1.
Equally, the domestic currency depreciated against the British Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N21.60 to wrap the session at N1,924.15/£1 compared with Monday’s closing price of N1,902.55/£1 and against the Euro, it lost N15.55 to quote at N1,595.07/€1 compared with the previous day’s N1,579.52/€1.
However, in the black market, the Naira traded flat against the US Dollar during the trading session at N1,655/$1 as the spot market battles fresh FX demand pressure.
Meanwhile, ihe cryptocurrency market was largely negative as two stronger-than-expected US economic data placed pressure on digital assets’ bright early-year momentum.
Job openings for November unexpectedly rose to 8.1 million from 7.8 million the previous month, easily topping analyst estimates for a decline to 7.7 million while the ISM Services Purchasing Managers Index, a monthly gauge of the level of economic activity in the services sector, came in at 54.1 for December, overshooting expectations for 53.3 and nicely ahead of November’s 52.1.
Market analysts noted that combined together, both data shook up an already jittery market.
The biggest loser was Dogecoin (DOGE), which recorded a value depreciation of 11.6 per cent to sell at $11.6, Cardano (ADA) slid by 10.9 per cent to trade at $0.9768, Litecoin (LTC) tumbled by 10.1 per cent to $101.89, and Solana (SOL) slumped by 10.0 per cent to finish at $194.73.
Further, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 9.5 per cent to close at $3,321.85, Ripple (XRP) dropped 6.4 per cent to sell at $2.29, Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 6.1 per cent fall to trade at $95,647.42, and Binance Coin (BNB) depreciated by 6.0 per cent to $95,647.42, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained stable at $1.00 flat.