Wednesday, 27th October 2021: The exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N415.07/$1 at the Investors and Exporters window, where forex is traded officially.
Naira appreciated marginally on Wednesday against the US dollar to close at N415.07/$1. This represents a 0.01% gain when compared to the N415.10 that was recorded on Tuesday, 26th October 2021.
Meanwhile, the naira remained stable against the US dollar on Wednesday at the parallel market to close at N570/$1, representing the same rate when compared to the N570/$1 that was recorded as of the close of trading activities the previous day. This is according to information obtained by Nairametrics from BDC operators in Lagos.
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The exchange rate appreciated against the US dollar on Wednesday, 27th October 2021 to close the day at N415.07 to a dollar, representing a 3 kobo gain when compared to N415.10/$1 recorded on Tuesday, 26th October 2021.
The opening indicative rate closed at N414.44/$1 on Wednesday, representing a 40 kobo drop when compared to N414.04/$1 recorded in the previous trading day.
An exchange rate of N444 to a dollar was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N415.07/$1, while it sold for as low as N405/$1 during intra-day trading.
Meanwhile, forex turnover at the official window rose by 26.6% on Wednesday, 27th October 2021.
According to data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ, forex turnover at the I&E window declined from $200.74 million recorded on Tuesday to $147.44 million on Wednesday 27th October 2021.
Cryptocurrency watch
The price of Bitcoin crashed on Wednesday morning, dropping by thousands of dollars in the space of just a few minutes as it fell below $59,000.
The world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was down by 2.29% on Wednesday evening to trade at $59,156.93 as the euphoria over the first US crypto ETF dissipated and traders took profits following a record breaking rally.
The global cryptocurrency market cap on Wednesday, October 27, was standing at $2.48 trillion on a day that emerging altcoin Shiba Inu registered record growth after an anonymous buyer purchased 277 billion tokens.
The total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours was $142.61 billion. This is a whopping 43.84% increase over the course of the last 24 hours, mostly due to the huge amount of Shiba Inu tokens purchased by an anonymous buyer.
Meanwhile, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum, was also down by 5.16% to trade at $3,998.29 on Wednesday. XRP was down by 10.02% to trade at $1.00 on Wednesday.
The price crash in the crypto market was partly fuelled by long-term holders taking some profits, which typically happens after Bitcoin hits a new all-time high.
Crude oil price
Oil prices fell on Wednesday after U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose more than expected, even as fuel inventories dropped and tanks at the nation’s largest storage hub emptied further.
Brent crude declined by 2.50% on Wednesday to trade for $84.24 per barrel after Iran and the European Union agreed to restart negotiations on a revival of the 2015 nuclear accord before the end of next month, signalling a greater prospect of Iranian barrels coming back to the market.
According to Reuters, OPEC+ is ready to risk prices going higher and affecting demand rather than add more supply, to curb the upward potential of benchmarks.
Oil prices hit a 7-year high on Tuesday, driven up by continued robust demand in the United States and the tight global supply situation, which OPEC+ has signalled it will not alleviate for now with additional supply.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude dropped by 2.98% on Wednesday to trade at $82.13 per barrel, while natural gas rose by 5.76% to trade at $6,221. Also, the OPEC Basket was up by 1.32% to trade at $84.52 per barrel.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s headline crude, Bonny Light, was down by 0.23% to trade at $85.64 per barrel.
External reserve
Nigeria’s foreign reserve gained $155 million on Tuesday, 27th October 2021 to close at $41.753 billion compared to $41.598 billion recorded as of the previous day. The latest increase represents a 0.37% increase in the country’s foreign reserve position.
The nation’s foreign reserve has gained $4.96 billion so far in October, on the back of the $4 billion raised by the federal government from the issuance of Eurobond in the international debt market. The gains recorded so far in the month are higher than the $2.76 billion gain recorded in the month of September 2021, while the recent increase puts the year-to-date gain at approximately $6.39 billion.
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