Market News

However, the currency remained stable on the parallel market.

By Abdulkareem Mojeed

Naira fell significantly against the U.S. dollar at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market on Friday, data from the FMDQ Security Exchange where forex is officially traded showed.

However, the currency remained stable on the parallel market.

The domestic currency closed at N411.00 at the trading session of the I&E window on Friday. This represents a N4.5 or 1.10 per cent depreciation from N406.50, the rate at which it closed at the previous session on Thursday.

This happened as naira experienced an intraday high of N392.50 and a low of N415.00 before closing at N411.00 on Friday.

The devaluation of the domestic currency occured as turnover increased by 25.29 per cent, with $83.93 million recorded as against the $66.99 million posted on Thursday.

However, on the unofficial market, data posted on abokiFX.com, a website that collates parallel market rates in Lagos showed the domestic currency remained unchanged.

According to the data posted, the currency again closed at N480.00, the same rate it exchanged hands with the greenback currency in the past four consecutive sessions this week.

This leaves the spread between the unofficial market and the I&E window exchange rate is pegged at N69.00, which translates to a gap of 16.78 per cent.

The CBN’s official rate on Friday was still N379 per dollar.