Market News

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated for the seventh straight session against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) by 0.14 per cent or N1.87 on Thursday, July 23, to trade at N1,367.76/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,369.63/$1.

The Nigerian currency also improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N8.67 to close at N1,824.45/£1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N1,833.12/£1, and against the Euro, it gained N6.25 to sell at N1,556.78/€1 compared with the midweek session’s N1,563.03/€1.

Similarly, the Naira gained N5 against the US Dollar in the parallel market yesterday to settle at N1,395/$1 versus Wednesday’s closing rate of N1,400/$1, and at the GTBank forex counter, it strengthened by N4 to quote at N1,379/$1 compared with the previous session’s N1,383/$1.

The positive outcome for the Naira comes amid a decline in FX turnover at the Nigerian foreign exchange market by 24 per cent to $1.163 billion from the $1.532 billion recorded a day earlier.

Meanwhile, the number of deals cut across the window by a slew of financial institutions in the country acting as market makers surged to 417 from 313 reported the previous day.

However, traders project that the local currency may weaken soon, largely due to foreign-currency buying from fuel importers.

Dangote Refinery, which distributes the majority of the country’s petrol supply, resumed the sale of petrol in Naira after it announced last week that it would start selling petroleum products to marketers in Dollars.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was down, as $800 billion evaporated from the biggest US technology stocks, regarded as a rare stretch of independence for an asset that has tracked the AI trade all month.

Market analysts noted concerns that Big Tech is spending on artificial-intelligence infrastructure faster than profits can justify, with Dogecoin (DOGE) down by 4.4 per cent to $0.0693.

Further, Cardano (ADA) also dropped 4.4 per cent to $0.1668, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 2.2 per cent to $1,883.48, Solana (SOL) dipped by 2.1 per cent to $75.85, Ripple (XRP) crashed by 2.0 per cent to $1.11, Bitcoin slipped by 0.4 per cent to $65,415.27, and Binance Coin (BNB) tumbled by 0.3 per cent to $568.41.

But TRON (TRX) gained 0.3 per cent to end at $0.3287, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.