Naira Gains on Dollar, Pounds, Others at Black Market, Falls at NAFEX

The Naira gained against the US Dollar in the Parallel segment of the foreign exchange market on Thursday, October 17 as it closed at N1,689.51 to the American currency, a gain of N4.41 compared to N1,693.32/$1 it closed during the Wednesday trading session.

The Naira also gained in its value against the British Pound Sterling in the market by N11.19 to sell at N2,147.93/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N2,159.12/£1 and followed the same pattern against the Euro as it appreciated N8.07 to quote at N1,839.87/€1 versus the previous day’s rate of N1,847.94/€1.

The local currency also appreciated N3.59 to close at N1,201.07 per Canadian Dollar, compared to the previous day’s closing value of N1,204.66 per CAD.

Meanwhile, the Naira depreciated marginally for yet another session against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) to N1,660.49/$1.

The local currency rose fell by 0.05 per cent or N91.01 at the window, according to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange compared to N1,659.69/$1 published in the preceding session on Wednesday.

This occurred as supply rose at the penultimate session as turnover published on the FMDQ Group website stood at $330.18 million indicating that the session’s turnover jumped by 86.4 per cent, indicating that there was a decrease of $153.08 million compared to $177.10 million published the previous day.

The surge in supply could be due to peer-to-peer sales as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has no actively injected liquidity in the market.

Investors King reports that the CBN in August re-introduced the retail Dutch auction system with the aim to sell US Dollar to FX users on demand basis but after the market witnessed more than $1.1 billion injected into the system, there has been slowdown in the auction.

In a different pattern, the local currency closed flat against the Pound Sterling and depreciated on the Euro at the closing session.

Trading against the British currency, the local currency closed at N2,153.90/£1 while it closed at the rate of N1,791.06/€1, a N9.73 appreciation against N1,800.79/€1 against the Euro.