Thursday, 11th November 2021: The exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N414.73/$1 at the Investors and Exporters window, where forex is traded officially. Naira closed flat against the US dollar at N414.73/$1 on Thursday, 11th November 2021, having gained 0.08% in the previous trading session from N415.07/$1.
In the same vein, the naira remained flat at the parallel market at N535/$1 on Thursday, having recorded significant gains on Wednesday from N570/$1 which it had maintained for the past few days. According to BDC operators interviewed by Nairametrics, the gain of the local currency is attributed to increased forex liquidity in the country, as the CBN continues to intervene in the market.
Nigeria’s foreign reserve lost $22.26 million on Wednesday, 10th November 2021 to close at $41.56 billion, representing a 0.05% decline.
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The exchange rate remained flat against the US dollar on Thursday, 11th November 2021 to close at N414.73/$1, the same as recorded in the previous trading session.
The opening indicative rate closed at N414.28/$1 on Thursday, indicating a 39 kobo depreciation compared to N413.89/$1 recorded in the previous trading session.
An exchange rate of N444 to a dollar was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N414.73/$1, while it sold for as low as N405/$1 during intra-day trading. The highest rate recorded during the day has been the same in the past two weeks.
Forex turnover at the official window declined by 73.2% to $82.01 million on Thursday.
According to data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ, forex turnover at the I&E window decreased from $306.24 million recorded on Wednesday 10th November 2021 to $82.01 million on Thursday 11th November 2021.
Cryptocurrency watch
The crypto market traded marginally bullish on Thursday as the market capitalization gained 1.67% to close at $2.812 trillion, representing a $46.26 billion gain, while Bitcoin gained 0.15% to close at $65,020.43. In the same vein, Ethereum recorded a 2.4% gain to close at $4,745.22.
However, Bitcoin had hit a new peak on Wednesday after the Bureau of Labour Statistics revealed that U.S consumer prices grew at the quickest pace in over 30 years, in October 2021, fueling inflationary fears which increased buying sentiments in the market.
On the other hand, XRP gained 2.04% on Thursday to close at $1.21796 as of 10:49 pm.
Crude oil price
Crude oil prices continued on a bearish note on Thursday, after Brent crude closed with a loss of 0.1% to $82.56 per barrel. This came on the back of recent reports by the Energy Information Administration indicating an inventory build of 1 million barrels for the week ended November 5, 2021.
West Texas Intermediate also dipped 0.18% to close at $81.19 per barrel. On the other hand, Bonny Light gained 0.05% to close at $83.78, while Brass River and Qua Iboe both traded bearish with a loss of 3.21% to close at $82.43 per barrel.
OPEC’s crude oil production rose by 217,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 27.453 million bpd in October, but still fell short of the cartel’s share of the 400,000 bpd total output hike.
While OPEC’s top producer and the world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, pumped nearly in perfect alignment to its quota and raised crude production by 110,000 bpd, several African members including Nigeria not only fell short of their quotas, but they also saw their respective output drop in October compared to September.
External reserve
Nigeria’s foreign reserve declined by 0.05% to close at $41.58 billion as of Wednesday, 10th November 2021 compared to $41.58 billion recorded as of the previous day.
However, the nation’s foreign reserve gained $5.04 billion in the month of October, as a result of the $4 billion raised by the federal government from the issuance of Eurobond in the international debt market. The gains recorded in the previous month is higher than the $2.76 billion gain recorded in the month of September 2021, while the recent decrease puts the year-to-date gain at $6.18 billion.
So far in the month of November, Nigeria’s reserve has lost $263.12 million.
