The Naira opened the week weaker against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Monday, December 1 after it lost N1.70 or 0.12 per cent to close at N1,448.44/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,446.74/$1.
In the same vein, the domestic currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the trading day by N9.19 to sell for N1,922.51/£1 versus last Friday’s price of N1,913.32/£1 and shed N12.82 against the Euro to trade at N1,687.28 /€1, in contrast to the previous session’s closing price of N1,674.46/€1.
In the black market, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar remained stable at N1,460/$1 on Monday but depreciated at GTBank by N10 to sell at N1,450/$1, in contrast to the N1,440/$1 it was exchanged last Friday.
As the final month of the year came into focus, pressure on Nigeria’s foreign exchange landscape persisted as continued volatility to speculative trading and ongoing uncertainty around the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy direction in intervening remained unclear.
Declining foreign inflows into the official market has been on the decline as stronger interventionist efforts by the apex bank even with a strong $46.7 billion external reserves position, has not been forthcoming.
Cowry Asset Limited said in an update that the Naira may hold a tight range around the mid-N1,440s this week.
As for the cryptocurrency market, it was mixed yesterday amid growing concerns about increased market concentration and questionable sustainability of overall growth in that sector. Thin liquidity and concerns over potential MSCI methodology changes also impacted prices with the finance company’s pending decision on whether to exclude companies whose balance sheets are heavily concentrated in cryptocurrencies from its global indices. The proposal affects firms collectively holding more than $137 billion in digital assets.
Cardano (ADA) appreciated by 2.1 per cent to $0.3911, Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 1.2 per cent to $87,012.41, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped by 1.0 per cent to $831.62, Solana (SOL) went up by 0.5 per cent to $126.80, and Litecoin (LTC) increased by 0.3 per cent to $77.55.
On the flip side, Ethereum (ETH) slid by 0.9 per cent to $2083.49, Dogecoin (DOGE) also lost 0.9 per cent to trade at $0.1359, and Ripple (XRP) went down by 0.6 per cent to $2.01, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded at $1.00 each.