Thursday 11th February 2021: The exchange rate between the Naira and the US Dollar closed at N400/$1 at the Investors and Exporters window same as recorded on Wednesday.
Forex turnover increased by 55.8% from $50.74 million recorded on Wednesday 10th February 2021 to stand at $79.07 million on Thursday.
The Naira also strengthened against the US Dollar in the parallel market to close at N470/$1 compared to N472/$1 recorded on the previous day.
READ: Warning signs as Nigeria’s external reserve drops to 6 month’s low.
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The exchange rate between the naira and dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window closed at N400/$1 on Thursday, 11th February 2021.
- The opening indicative rate was N401.75/$1 to a dollar on Thursday, 0.18% depreciation compared to N401.04/$1 recorded the previous day
- The dollar sold for as high as N422.59 to a dollar during intra-day trading, the highest recorded year-to-date before retreating to close at N400 to a dollar.
- It also sold for as low as N380.35/$1 during intra-day trading.
- Forex turnover increased by 55.8% at the Investor and Exporters (I&E) window to stand at $79.07 million from $50.74 million recorded on Wednesday, 9th February 2021.
READ: Naira falls at black market despite over 100% improvement in dollar supply
Cryptocurrency Watch
The price of bitcoin soared during the day, trading at $47,844.37 as of 8:55 pm on Thursday, indicating a gain of 6.56% for the day.
- Meanwhile, reports indicate that a number of bank accounts linked to crypto have been allegedly closed by their respective banks as a result of the CBN’s directive prohibiting banks and other financial institutions from dealing in crypto-related transactions.
- The CEO of Bitfxt a digital currency company, Franklin Peters also revealed through his twitter handle that the business accounts of the company were allegedly closed and its fund wiped off.
- However, Bank of New York Mellon Corp disclosed that it will now hold, transfer and issue bitcoin and other digital assets on behalf of its asset-management customers.
- The banking giant joins the likes of Mastercard, Tesla, and MicroStrategy Incorporated to have shown support behind the popular cryptocurrency.
READ: Nigeria’s external reserve drop by $261 million in 15 days, oil firms to sell forex to CBN
Crude oil markets stalled on Thursday
Crude oil prices recorded a marginal decline on Thursday as Brent Crude lost 0.19% to stand at $61.44.
- Also, WTI closed at $58.54 (-0.07%), OPEC Basket at $28 (+0.28%) while Bonny Light closed at $61.52 (-1.39%).
- However, the oil market has enjoyed a run of bullish trades in recent time, attributable to the supply curbs from OPEC+ and Saudi Arabia as well as the recent drop in inventories.
- Meanwhile, OPEC has revised its projected global oil demand for 2020 to rise by 5.8 million barrels per day, down by 100,000 bpd from last month’s projection.
External reserve dipped further
- Nigeria’s external reserve stood at $35.85 billion as of Wednesday 10th February 2021, indicating a 0.12% decline when compared to $35.89 billion recorded as of Tuesday 9th February 2021.
- Nigeria has lost a total of $674.7 million in foreign reserve since 25th of January 2021, when it started recording a downturn in its reserve.
- Meanwhile, at $35.85 billion, Nigeria’s external reserve is currently 1.34% higher than $35.4 billion recorded as of December 31st 2020.