Friday, 16th April 2021, the exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N411/$1 at the Investors and Exporters window, where forex is traded officially.
Naira depreciated against the US dollar on Friday 16th April 2021 to close at N411 to a dollar. This represents a 0.12% fall compared to N410.5/$1 recorded on Thursday, 15th April 2021.
The Naira, however, remained stable at the parallel market to close at N482/$1 on Friday, 16th April 2021. The naira maintained its rate at N482 to a dollar in the parallel market for the week.
Meanwhile, the world’s most popular digital asset, Bitcoin suffered its biggest daily intraday loss since February as it dipped about 15% on Saturday and over 6% in the early hours of Monday, 19th April 2021.
READ: Naira gains at black market as external reserves increases by $620 million in 2 weeks
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The naira depreciated against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters window on Friday to close at N411/$1. This represents a 50 kobo decline when compared to N410.5/$1 recorded on Thursday, 15th April 2021.
- The opening indicative rate closed at N410.13 to a dollar on Friday. This represents 37 kobo gain compared to N410.5/$1 recorded the previous day.
- Also, an exchange rate of N437.62 to a dollar was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it closed at N411/$1. It also sold for as low as N393/$1 during intra-day trading.
- Forex turnover at the Investor and Exporters (I&E) window dipped by 47% on Friday, 16th April 2021.
- A cursory look at the data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ showed that forex turnover decreased from $116.16 million recorded on Thursday, April 15th, 2021, to $61.52 million on Friday.
READ: Exchange rate falls at NAFEX window, as dollar supply drops further
Cryptocurrency watch
The world most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, dipped by 6.1% in the early hours of Monday to trade at $56,377.84 after enduring a bigger loss on Saturday.
- Bitcoin dropped as much as 15% on Saturday, its biggest intraday drop since February, just days after hitting record highs.
- Bitcoin was also down by 6.1% on Monday morning as the total crypto market cap dropped to $2.01 trillion.
- Reports suggested that the downturn was due to speculation that the US Treasury may take action against money laundering that is carried out using digital assets.
- Ethereum also dipped by 3.33% on Monday morning to trade at $2,240.5.
READ: Naira gains at NAFEX window despite 26.2% drop in dollar supply
Crude oil dips marginally
Oil prices dipped marginally on Sunday, 18th April 2021 to close at $66.77 per barrel, indicating a 0.25% decline when compared to $66.94 recorded on Saturday.
- Oil prices have, however, recovered significantly in the past week compared to $63.2 recorded at the beginning of the previous week as oil demand begins to boost.
- According to a report by Rystad Energy, global oil demand is projected to increase year-on-year by 6% in 2021, climbing to an average of 95.4 million barrels per day, compared to 89.6 million bpd in 2020.
- it also projected that road fuel demand will rise by 9% in 2021, to 45.1 million barrel per day, from 41.3 million bpd recorded in the previous year.
- Brent Crude closed at $66.77 (-0.25%), WTI Crude closed at $63.13 indicating 0.52% decline, Bonny Light, $65.25 (+0.37%), OPEC Basket (+1.72%) to close at $64.18 while Natural gas dipped by 0.83% to close at $2.68.
External reserve
Nigeria’s external reserve increased by 0.08% on Thursday, 15th April 2021 to stand at $35.23 billion.
- This represents the 18th consecutive increase in Nigeria’s external reserve position having gained $804.77 million since 18th March 2021, about a month ago.
- Nigeria’s external reserve has received a consistent boost in recent times, owing to the growth in the price of crude oil and its policy to pay Nigerians for any unit of dollar received from the diaspora.
- Meanwhile, the country’s reserve position is set to receive a further boost as the Federal Government announced its plans to issue %500 million Eurobonds for 2021.
