Naira extends gains at interbank, parallel markets

The Nigerian currency, Naira, on Monday appreciated further against the US Dollar and Pound sterling at both the official foreign exchange market and its unofficial segment, Daily Times check has revealed.

The local currency, at the close of yesterday trading activities at the interbank market closed at 305.60 to the dollar against the sustained appreciated rate of 305. 65 traded on Friday and Thursday.

Even though, it was traded at 305. 75 per dollar on the first trading day of last week before climbing to 305.70 last Wednesday at the official forex market.

On the other hand, the Naira, at the parallel market otherwise referred as the unofficial forex market, only managed to sustain 363 to the dollar, the same rate it traded over the weekend after extending its gaining streak from 365 to the current rate of 363.

The local currency, however, succeeded over the pound sterling with the new closing rate of 477 compared to 478 it was sold on Friday and Thursday, while dropped slightly to 422 to the Euro against 421 exchanged on Friday and over the weekend.

Also, at the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) window, the Naira, opened low against the dollar at 359.85 against 359.24 recorded on Friday, representing a drop of 0.17 per cent but eventually closed the day high with closing figure of 360.50 compared to 360.64.

In the same vein, the Nigerian currency at the NAFEX slightly declared a drop in the daily turnover with the new closing figure of $207.20 million, weaker than $207.26 exchanged on the last trading day in the previous week.

It is however, worthy of note that the autonomous forex window has recorded an improving turnover of $1.172 billion in the concluded week, with last Tuesday daily turnover of $340.07 million, an appreciable traded volume of $257.56 on Wednesday, while extended to $367.44 million on Thursday before closing the week on Friday with total volume traded put at $207.26 million, representing the lowest traded figure during the considered week, data obtained from FMDQ OTC official website has showed.

Meanwhile, the nation’s the external reserves, recorded an increase of a $693.704 million in just two weeks, even as $698.5 million was injected into the forex market during the same period.

The current statistic obtained from the apex bank revealed that the foreign reserves as at October 3, 2017, stood at$32.740 billion against the balance of $32.046 billion on October 19, representing total growth of $693.704 million in just11 working day.

Considering the appreciating level in the first week, our correspondent observed that the reserves recorded just $274.873 million, while comparing $32.321billion on 26, 2017 with $32.046 billion a week earlier before extending the gains by $418.831 million in the second week to have less than $700 million appreciation.

This was in-spite of the central bank injection of the total sum of $698.5 million into the official foreign exchange market in the last two weeks.