The Naira put up a good performance against the United States Dollar in the different segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, April.
In the parallel market, it appreciated against the Dollar yesterday by N5 to sell for N1,405/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,410/$1. However, it lost N1 at the GTBank forex counter to settle at N1,396/$1 compared with Tuesday’s closing rate of N1,395/$1.
In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) window, it improved its value against the greenback by N8.02 or 0.58 per cent to trade at N1,378.70/$1 compared with the N1,386.72/$1 it was traded a day earlier.
Equally, the domestic currency gained N2.77 against the Pound Sterling in the spot market during the session to quote at N1,836.57/£1 versus N1,839.34/£1, but lost N3.30 against the Euro to finish at N1,602.46/€1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N1,599.16/€1.
Pressure eased on the local currency amid a surge in interbank turnover to N116.217 million from N30.953 million the previous day.
Foreign reserves fell by $547 million from $50.03 billion on March 11 to $49.29 billion on March 30, suggesting pressure on the Naira is ongoing but still under control, while reserves are gradually decreasing rather than falling sharply.
As for the cryptocurrency market, most tokens rose as futures data show rising volume but flat open interest, indicating the rally lacks strong leveraged conviction. Elevated leverage in some top coins raised the risk of a pullback if macro sentiment shifts against recent optimism.
The broader crypto market remains in a downtrend dating back to October, although sentiment has shifted slightly following a period of consolidation, as Binance Coin (BNB) dipped 0.4 per cent to $614.89, and Solana (SOL) lost 0.2 per cent to sell at $82.67.
But Cardano (ADA) rose 3.4 per cent to $0.2496, Ethereum (ETH) increased by 2.9 per cent to $2,153.94, Ripple (XRP) jumped 0.9 per cent to $1.35, TRON (TRX) appreciated by 0.8 per cent to $0.3158, Dogecoin (DOGE) expanded by 0.6 per cent to $0.0929, and Bitcoin (BTC) gained 0.5 per cent to trade at $68,318.65, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.