The Naira performed badly against the United States Dollar in the in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) after resumption of trading activities following the Democracy Day holiday observed on Wednesday.
Yesterday, the value of the Naira weakened by 0.17 per cent or N2.58 to sell at N1,476.24/$1, in contrast to Tuesday’s closing price of N1,473.66/$1.
However, the local currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N7.23 to wrap the session at N1,876.39/£1 versus the preceding session’s N1,883.62/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N11.84 to trade at N1,580.19/€1 versus N1,592.03/€1.
The mixed trading outcome happened as FX supply to the spot market depreciated by 75.9 per cent or $239.23 million to $92.68 million from the $385.91 million recorded in the preceding session.
In the black market, the domestic currency depreciated against the American currency during the trading day by N10 to settle at N1,490/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s rate of N1,480/$1.
Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, the benchmarked tokens recorded depreciation as the US Producer Price Index (PPI) print for May came in lower than expectations across the board, showing inflation to be losing steam. Technically a positive sign for risk assets and crypto, the latter offered a cool reaction to PPI.
Solana (SOL) slumped by 4.6 per cent to trade at $148.06, Cardano (ADA) dropped 3.5 per cent to close at $0.4226, Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 2.9 per cent to finish at $601.18, and Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded a value depreciation of 2.6 per cent to sell at $0.1419.
In addition, Ethereum (ETH) slid by 2.4 per cent to finish at $3,481.39, Ripple (XRP) fell by 2.3 per cent to settle at $0.4794, and Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 2.1 per cent loss to sell for $66,926.75.
However, Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 0.9 per cent rise to close at $79.23, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
–By Adedapo Adesanya