The Naira still moved in different directions in the various segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday, closing flat against the US Dollar at the black market at N1,540/$1.
However, in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), it depreciated against the greenback yesterday by 0.02 per cent or 25 Kobo to sell for N1,533.94/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N1,533.69/$1.
In the same vein, it crashed against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N12.97 to trade at N2,038.49/£1 compared with Thursday’s closing price of N2,025.52/£1 and lost N3.83 against the Euro to finish at N1,755.46/€1 versus the previous day’s N1,751.63/€1.
Although the FX market is expected to be supported by Dollar sales from exporters, foreign portfolio investors, and oil companies selling to fund their local obligations in the long term.
Occasional pressure from retail pressure will see corrections happen day-to-day even if the Naira will remain at the current range through the remaining months of the year, amid ongoing reforms and improvements in macroeconomic stability outshine global uncertainties and other domestic challenges.
A look at the crypto market indicated that most of the tokens tracked by Business Post were in red as a soft job data from the US on Friday morning combined with shocking revisions lower to June and May prints to produce the weakest three-month period of employment growth since the Covid shutdowns of 2020 weakened investors sentiment.
The data seems likely to put an end to the wait-and-see approach of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and set the central bank on a path to restarting rate cuts at its next meeting in September.
Ethereum (ETH) fell by 3.3 per cent to $3,449.70, Dogecoin (DOGE) slumped by 2.4 per cent to $0.1995, Solana (SOL) tumbled by 2.3 per cent to $164.10, Binance Coin (BNB) depreciated by 1.6 per cent to $775.75, Bitcoin (BTC) slipped by 0.6 per cent to $113,743.55, and Cardano (ADA) lost 0.4 per cent to end at $0.7175.
However, Litecoin (LTC) grew by 2.7 per cent to $107.28, and Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 2.2 per cent to $2.98, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.