Naira Closes at N1,600/$1 at NAFEM, N1,730/$1 at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) segment of the forex market on Friday, October 25.

Data obtained from the FMDQ Securities Exchange indicated that the domestic currency improved its value against the greenback during the trading day by 0.07 percent or N1.20 to close the last trading session of the week at N1,600.00/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,601.20/$1.

Equally, the local currency witnessed gains against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the official market in the week’s final session.

On the Pound Sterling, the Nigerian currency gained N7.77 to trade at N2,132.29/£1 compared with Thursday’s closing price of N2,140/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N11.98 to sell for N1,768.18/€1 versus the previous day’s value of N1,780.16/€1.

There was an improvement in the value of FX transactions at the spot market yesterday on Friday by 23.4 per cent or $53.94 million to $284.93 million from the $230.99 million recorded a day earlier.

As for the parallel market, the Naira, however, lost N5 against the US Dollar yesterday to quote at N1,730$1, in contrast to the N1,725/$1 it was exchanged on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was bearish on Friday following a Wall Street Journal report that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is probing stablecoin issuer Tether for violations of sanctions and anti-money laundering rules.

Litecoin (LTC) slid by 2.7 per cent to $69.04, Dogecoin (DOGE) waned by 2.7 per cent to $0.1345, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 2.6 per cent to $167.79, Cardano (ADA) fell by 2.0 per cent to $0.333, Ripple (XRP) slumped by 1.9 per cent to $0.5139, Binance Coin (BNB) went down by 1.4 per cent to $579.50, Bitcoin (BTC) retreated by 0.8 per cent to $62,119, Ethereum (ETH) dropped by 0.7 per cent to $2,462.78, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) moderated by 0.03 per cent to $0.9994, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00.