Market News

By Adedapo Adesanya

It was an unfavourable outcome for the Naira at both the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and parallel market segments of the foreign exchange market on Friday, February 26.

Yesterday, the local currency was further weakened against the United States Dollar at the two opposite market segments.

At the specialised market, the I&E, the Naira lost N1.58 or 0.39 per cent to finish at N410.25/$1 compared to N408.67/$1 of the previous day.

The depreciation came despite less pressure on the domestic currency as the turnover at the window reduced by 14.7 per cent or $6.48 million to $37.49 million from $43.97 million of the preceding session.

A looking at the performance of the local currency at the black market showed that it shed N2 or 0.42 per cent to close at N482/$1 in contrast to N480/$1 it traded on Thursday.

Also, at the same window, the local currency suffered a N2 loss against the Pound Sterling to close at N672/£1 versus the previous day’s N670/£1, while against the Euro, the Naira lost N3 to close at N583/€1 compared with the preceding day’s N580/€1.

However, at the interbank segment of the market, the domestic currency still remained flat against the US Dollar at N379/$1 and at the Bureaux De Change (BDC) window, the value of the Nigerian currency against the greenback remained at N395/$.

At the cryptocurrency market, most of the tokens tracked by Business Post on Friday closed bearish as only one finished stronger, based on data obtained from Quidax.

The Bitcoin (BTC) lost 0.3 per cent to trade at N32,100,018, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 3.6 per cent to sell at N1,015,000, while Litecoin (LTC) declined by 1.8 per cent to trade at N123,997.

Furthermore, the Dash (DASH) dropped 4.3 per cent to sell at N152,093.10, Ripple (XRP) fell by 2.1 per cent to trade at N300.62, while Tron (TRX) declined by 1.01 per cent to sell at N31.32.

The only coin which closed stronger was the US Dollar Tether (USDT) as its value went up by 5.7 per cent to quote at N721.88.