Naira Weakens to N1,601/$1 at Official Market, N1,610/$1 at Black Market

Similarly, the local currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N56.21 to close at N2,186.65/£1, in contrast to the preceding session’s rate of N2,130.44/£1 and lost N29 Kobo on the Euro to sell for N1,818.82/€1 versus the previous trading day’s rate of N1,818.53/€1.

In the same vein, the domestic currency weakened against the Dollar in the black market yesterday by N5 to quote at N1,610/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,605/$1.

Market analysts have raise worries about the continued secondary effect of a trade war between the US and China on Nigeria and other nations’ economies.

For Nigeria, which is heavily dependent on crude oil for FX earnings, the impact of the beef between the two biggest economies is affecting prices, leading to weaker forex.

This is happening despite constant promise by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to continue propping up the local currency.

As for the cryptocurrency market, it was mixed on Monday amid signals from weak economic data just as rising tensions between India and Pakistan added to worries.

Amid macroeconomic uncertainty caused by the US-China trade tensions, the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index, a typically little-noticed economic data point, plunged to -35.8 from -16.3 last month — making it the worst performance since COVID upended the world economy.

Hostilities between India and Pakistan might also have added to market jitters, with Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif claiming that an Indian military incursion into Pakistan was imminent.

According to reports, last week 26 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The two countries have exchanged fire since.

Ethereum (ETH) gained 0.6 per cent to settle at $1,815.97, Binance Coin (BNB) improved by 0.5 per cent to $609.82, and Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 0.1 per cent to end at $94,626.01, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 apiece.

However, Solana (SOL) dipped by 0.9 per cent to trade at $147.90, Cardano (ADA) slumped by 1.0 per cent to $0.7102, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 0.9 per cent to $0.1792, Litecoin (LTC) shrank by 0.5 per cent to $86.55, and Ripple (XRP) went down by 0.3 per cent to $2.28.