Naira Suffers 0.01% Loss Despite Low Forex Transactions | Business

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira recorded a marginal loss of 0.01 per cent or 2 kobo against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Friday, December 17.

At the spot market, the exchange rate of the Naira to the greenback ended at N415.07/$1 in contrast to N415.05/$1 it was traded at the previous session.

The poor performance of the Nigerian currency to its American counterpart happened despite the FX category posting low forex transactions, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.

The turnover for the trading session stood at $151.03 million, 54.4 per cent or $180.08 million lower than the previous day’s turnover of $331.11 million.

However, the local currency showed no movement against the American currency at the interbank window of the forex market at the closing session for the week. This was because the exchange rate remained intact at N411.91/$1 at the close of business.

But the Nigerian Naira appreciated against the British Pound Sterling by N3.33 on Friday to trade at N547.35/£1 versus the preceding session’s N550.68/£1 and gained 87 kobo against the Euro to close the day at N466.24/€1 compared with N467.11/€1 of the previous day.

Meanwhile, investors continued to play it safe at the cryptocurrency market and in the midst of the cautious trading, the bears took control of the ecosystem as the 10 tokens tracked by Business Post ended in red.

Ethereum (ETH) closed with a 6.3 per cent decline to sell at N2,055,068.70, Dash (DASH) depreciated by 5.5 per cent to trade at N74,094.20, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 4.2 per cent to sell at N86,566.46, Bitcoin (BTC) declined by 2.7 per cent to trade at N26,927,365.96, while Dogecoin (DOGE) slipped by 1.9 per cent to N101.90,

In addition, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 1.8 per cent to trade at N731.90, Binance Coin (BNB) fell by 1.0 per cent to sell at N215,467.65, Tron (TRX) went down by 0.3 per cent to sell for N48.89, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) lost 0.1 per cent to quote at N579.20, while Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 0.1 per cent to N468.72.