The Naira weakened for a second trading session at the unregulated segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Thursday, August 19.
During the trading day, the Nigerian currency depreciated against the United States Dollar by N3 to trade at N520/$1 compared to N517/$1 it did on Wednesday.
This devaluation of the domestic currency at the parallel market is coming on the back of a renewed pressure and the initial ease in the panic that gripped the market after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) dried up the sale of forex to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in July.
At the same market segment yesterday, the domestic currency fell against the Pound Sterling by N1 to close at N708/£1 in contrast to N707/£1 of the preceding session.
Also, the Naira depreciated against the Euro by N1 at the black market to settle at N607/€1 in contrast to N606/€1 it finished a day before.
At the interbank segment of the market, the same scenario played out as the Nigerian currency declined by 2 kobo against the American Dollar, closing at N410.13/$1 versus the previous day’s N410.11/$1.
However, at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the market, the Naira appreciated against the greenback on Thursday by 8 kobo or 0.02 per cent to close at N411.67/$1 compared with N411.75/$1 of the earlier trading day.
The local currency gained this strength against the Dollar despite coming under FX demand pressure as data showed that the turnover for the day expanded by 16.7 per cent or $18.93 million to $132.31 million from $113.38 million recorded at the midweek session.
Mixed Outcome at Cryptocurrency Market
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was mixed on Thursday, with the bears more dominant than the bulls as four of the seven tokens tracked went for the former.
Tron (TRX) recorded a 4.5 per cent depreciation to trade at N43.79, Ethereum (ETH) recorded a 3.7 per cent depreciation to sell at N1,550,000.00, Litecoin (LTC) dropped 1.1 per cent to N89,000, while the US Dollar Tether fell 0.3 per cent to sell at N523.28.
But Dash (DASH) appreciated by 16.3 per cent to trade at N121,000, Ripple (XRP) lept by 8 per cent to trade at N630, while Bitcoin (BTC) went up by 4.5 per cent to trade at N24,263,339.29.
– Business Post