By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira is beginning to find its feet against the United States Dollar in the different segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market as it further firmed up on Friday at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) and the black market windows.
The sustained appreciation has been fuelled by an improved dollar supply into the forex market, easing pressure on the domestic currency.
Market analysts already expect the Naira to remain stable near current levels, evidenced by remaining within the N1,500/$1 and N1,590/$1 range in the last two weeks at the two major market segments.
Further signals such as improvement in macroeconomic numbers and sustained economic reform programmes have been noted to boost foreign investors’ sentiment and confidence in the financial market.
At the parallel market, the value of the Nigerian currency improved against its American counterpart by N10 to N1,570/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N1,580/$1.
Yesterday, at the official market, it gained 0.34 per cent or N5.32 on the greenback to sell for N1,538.62/$1, in contrast to the N1,543.94/$1 it was exchanged on Thursday.
However, the Nigerian Naira weakened against the Pound Sterling in the spot market by N5.40 to close at N2,112.29/£1 versus N2,106.89/£1 and tumbled against the Euro by N8.16 to quote at N1,805.68/€1 versus the N1,797.52/€1 it was sold a day earlier.
As for the cryptocurrency market, Ripple (XRP) rose by 5.1 per cent to $2.19 as Ripple Labs said it was stepping back from its legal counteroffensive against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Earlier, Judge Analisa Torres rejected a joint attempt by Ripple and the (SEC to modify the court’s previous judgment with an agreed-upon injunction.
In its motion, the SEC had requested two key changes: first, that the court remove the permanent injunction mandating Ripple’s adherence to federal securities law. Second, that the financial penalties imposed on the firm be significantly reduced by more than 50 per cent. Judge Torres denied the request in a brief but direct order, writing simply: “The request is DENIED.”
In the last 24 hours, the price of Solana (SOL) has gone up by 2.5 per cent to $141.38, Cardano (ADA) up by 0.9 per cent to $0.5605, Dogecoin (DOGE) up by 0.8 per cent to $0.1624, and Litecoin (LTC) up by 0.6 per cent to $85.49.
Further, Binance Coin (BNB) increased by 0.2 per cent to $646.69, and Bitcoin (BTC) grew by 0.2 per cent to $107,477.58, while Ethereum (ETH) fell by 0.6 per cent to $2,427.10, with the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) trading flat at $1.00 each.
