The foreign exchange (FX) market closed on Friday with naira
depreciating by 1.12 percent to N895 per dollar on Friday from N885/$1 on
Thursday at the black market.
Traders attributed the naira depreciation to strong demand
for dollars by individuals who wanted to travel for business or school.
“Many people are traveling outside the country and they come
to buy dollars”,” Abubakar, a black market operator at CMS said.
The naira is expected to cross the N900/$ threshold before
recovering, said Bismarck Rewane, managing director/chief executive officer of
Financial Derivatives Company Limited.
At the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) forex window,
Nigeria’s official foreign exchange market, naira appreciated by 4.30 percent
as the dollar was quoted at N743.07 on Friday as against N776.50 quoted on
Thursday, data from the FMDQ showed.
Willing buyers and sellers maintained bids as high as N799
per dollar on Friday, which was stronger than N804/$1 on Thursday, but slightly
weaker than N799.50/$1, on Friday last week.
The market auction also recorded lower bids of N475,
stronger than N700 per dollar on Thursday and Tuesday, but weaker than N465.00
bid on Friday last week at the I&E window.
On a weekly basis at the I&E window, activity level
declined 10.1 percent ($43.7m) to $389.1m and the base currency (dollar) rose
0.1 percent w/w against the price currency (Naira) to N776.50/$1.00.
In the parallel market, the dollar appreciated 2.3 percent
w/w against the Naira to N890.00/$1.00.
“We observed that the spread between both FX rates deflected
from last week’s thin course, as the weekly average expanded by 25.7 percent to
N111.9,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment