Market News

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar by N1.01 or 0.07 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, November 3, to N1,346.93/$1 from the previous day’s N1,347.94/$1.

Equally, the domestic currency improved against the Pound Sterling at NAFEX during the session by N1.62 to end at N1,807.72/£1 compared with Monday’s N1,809.34/£1, and gained N1.41 against the Euro to sell at N1,510.85/€1 compared with the previous session’s N1,512.26/€1.

But the Nigerian currency traded flat against the greenback yesterday at the parallel market and the GTBank forex desk at N1,378/$1 and N1,354/$1, respectively.

Recent market cycles saw elevated demand pressure as Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) exited local equity and adjusted fixed-income bets, causing short-term Dollar liquidity shortfalls.

The market saw a surge in service-related requests and higher inventory imports ahead of the festive season, typically intensifying Dollar demand.

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that interbank FX turnover surged by 62.8 per cent to $118.957 million from $21.765 million, while the number of FX deals increased to 117 deals from 23 deals.

Last week, CBN sold $950 million to banks and other authorised dealers in the foreign exchange market last week to address the liquidity gap and strengthen the local currency.

In the cryptocurrency market, the majority of benchmarked coins were up as analysts said clearer US midterm election results eased political uncertainty.

Traders bought hundreds of millions of Dollars in bitcoin call options, which wager on rising prices, as election-day options block trading more than doubled from the previous day.

Ethereum (ETH) rose by 2.3 per cent to $2,295.24, Cardano (ADA) grew by 2.1 per cent to $0.1902, Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 1.9 per cent to $77,924.60, Ripple (XRP) gained 1.8 per cent to close at $1.27, Solana (SOL) improved by 1.4 per cent to $92.87, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped by 1.3 per cent to $699.66, Dogecoin (DOGE) soared by 1.3 per cent to $0.0747, and TRON (TRX) increased by 0.4 per cent to $0.3215, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.