By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira halted its fall against the Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, July 11.
It was the first time the local currency was appreciating against the greenback in the official market in the last one week.
Yesterday, the value of the domestic currency improved by 0.47 per cent or N7.33 to close at N1,554.65/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1,561.98/$1.
This happened as there was an improvement in supply with a turnover of $348.82 million yesterday, higher than the $236.70 million recorded at midweek by 47.4 per cent or $112.12 million, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
The improvement was occasioned by a boost in the country’s external reserves which crossed $35 billion for the first time since June 2023 when the unification of the FX rates was announced. Nigeria’s external reserves increased to $35.05 billion on July 8 — the highest since May 30, 2023.
In the same vein, the Naira gained N36.11 against the British Pound Sterling during the session to finish at N1,951.83/£1 versus Wednesday’s closing price of N1,987.94/£1 and against the Euro, it appreciated by N31.43 to close at N1,645.39/€1 versus N1,676.82/€1.
But in the black market, the Nigerian currency depreciated against the American currency yesterday by N10 to settle at N1,560/$1 compared with midweek’s closing value of N1,550/$1.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market mixed on Thursday after the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the United States opened the door for the US Federal Reserve to lower borrowing costs.
Solana (SOL) recorded a 2.9 per cent depreciation to sell at $136.46, Dogecoin (DOGE) fell by 1.3 per cent to $0.1061, Bitcoin (BTC) depreciated by 1.2 per cent to trade at $59,957.18, and Binance Coin (BNB) slid by 0.7 per cent to $521.03.
However, Ripple (XRP) jumped by 2.4 per cent to trade at $0.4786, Litecoin (LTC) improved by 1.7 per cent to close at $68.32, Cardano (ADA) grew by 1.6 per cent to $0.4512, and Ethereum (ETH) rose by 0.1 per cent to $3,082.83, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and US Dollar Coin (USDC) appreciated to $1.00 each.