By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira depreciated against the dollar in the different segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market in the first trading session after the Christmas holidays on Wednesday, December 28.
The foreign exchange market came under pressure as clients sought dollars to complete their business transactions and this weakened the value of the national currency in Peer-to-Peer (P2P), the black market, and Investors and Exporters windows ( I&E) of the foreign exchange market.
In the P2P market, the local currency fell N22 to sell at N778/$1 compared to the previous day’s value of N756/$1, and in the unauthorized window, the Naira lost N1 to trade at N742/$1, in contrast to the previous daily rate of N741/$1.
On the official market, the naira fell against the dollar by 4.83 naira, or 1.06 percent, to trade at 461.33 naira/$1 from 456.50 naira/$1 in the previous session.
Data from the FMDQ Stock Exchange showed that the value of foreign exchange transactions registered yesterday stood at $196.06 million, in contrast to $155.86 million in the previous session, representing an increase of 25, 8 percent or $40.2 million.
However, on the interbank leg, the naira appreciated against the pound sterling by 1 Kobo to trade at N541.24/£1 against N541.25/£1, and against the euro, it depreciated N2.76 to close on N454. .49/€1 compared to N474.40/€1 of the previous session.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was down on Wednesday, with Ripple (XRP) shedding 2.9% to trade at $0.3471, and Solana (SOL) shedding 2.8% to sell at $9.67.
Cardano (ADA) lost 2.4% to trade at $0.2457, Litecoin (LTC) was down 1.8% to trade at $66.26, Bitcoin (BTC) fell 0.3% to sell at $16,574, 37 and United States Tether (USDT) lost 0.02 percent to settle at $0.9997.
But Binance Coin (BNB) rose 0.7% to sell at $244.75, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated 0.3% to trade at $0.0706 and Ethereum (ETH) rose in value 0.1% to selling at $1,194.11, while Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00.
