Market News

After its significant recovery in the last few days, the naira eased on the official market on Wednesday, closing at N1,329.65/per dollar, compared to N1,173.88/$1 on Tuesday, data from FMDQ shows. The local currency, however, appreciated slightly on the parallel market yesterday as it traded at N1,510 per dollar compared to N1,515 per dollar on Tuesday, currency traders said.

According to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday, interventions in the foreign exchange market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday and Tuesday, were responsible for the significant appreciation of the naira against the dollar on the official market on both days.

The report quoted Olaolu Boboye, an analyst at asset manager CardinalStone in Lagos as having said that, “The central bank dollar sales and OMO auction” helped to strengthen the naira. The report said: “Dollar liquidity had surged on Friday as the CBN’s sale of one-year paper attracted flows.

The sale of N1.143 trillion ($800 million) worth of bills at a 22.49 per cent yield, more than doubled liquidity in the foreign exchange market to $556 million. However, that liquidity surge was not sustained into Monday, when the volume of dollars sold in the market declined to $181 million despite the central bank intervention.”