Thursday, 10th February 2022: The exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N416.67/$1 at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, where forex is traded officially.
Naira reversed its position at the Investors and Exporters window, closing at N416.67/$1 on Thursday, representing a 0.16% depreciation compared to N416/$1 recorded in the previous trading session. Meanwhile, forex turnover at the market declined by 35.8% to $109.75 million.
On the other hand, Naira remained flat, closing at N573 to a dollar at the parallel market on Thursday, 10th February 2022. This is according to information obtained from BDC operators interviewed by Nairametrics.
Also, the exchange rate started flat at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) forex market, trading at a minimum of N574 to a dollar on Friday morning, the same as recorded a day before.
Nigeria’s foreign reserve continued with a downtrend having declined by 0.06% to close at $39.9 billion as of Wednesday, 9th February 2022.
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The exchange rate at the Investors and Exporters window closed at N416.67/$1 on Thursday, 10th February 2022, which represents a 0.16% depreciation compared to N416/$1 recorded in the previous trading session
The opening indicative rate closed to N415.77/$1 on Thursday, which represents a 62 kobo depreciation compared to N415.15/$1 recorded in the previous trading session.
An exchange rate of N444/$1 was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N416.67/$1, while it sold for as low as N410/$1 during intra-day trading,
Meanwhile, forex turnover at the official window decreased by 35.8% to $109.75 million on Thursday.
According to data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ, forex turnover at the I&E window dropped to $109.75 million on Thursday from $170.94 million recorded on Wednesday, 9th February 2022.
Crypto market
The crypto market resumed trading activities on Thursday on a positive note as the industry market capitalization as of press time has gained $5.7 billion to stand at $1.95 trillion. However, flagship crypto asset trade on the reds with 0.25% decline to trade at $43,405.09.
Meanwhile, Ethereum gained 0.84% to trade at $3,100 while Terra at $53.8592751 had gained 2.73% in the early trading hours of Friday, 11th February 2022. Solana, however, dipped by 0.44% to trade at $105.76.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the United States announced that they have made arrests and seized $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin from the hackers who stole 119,756 BTC from the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, six years ago
Crude oil market
Crude oil market traded bearish on Thursday and has started the day on the same note with Brent Crude recording a decline of 0.5% to trade at $90.95 per barrel in the early hours of Friday. Also, American oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dipped 0.34% to trade at $89.55 per barrel, falling further away from the record high recorded earlier in the week.
The price of OPEC basket also declined by 0.36% to close at $91.84 per barrel, two days ago, While Bonny Light gained 0.92% to close at $94.16 a barrel. Nigeria’s crude product, Brass River and Qua Iboe followed the same path with a 0.5% appreciation to close at $94.22 per barrel.
Recall that the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated the inventory draw this week for crude oil to be 2.025 million barrels bringing the total inventory draws of the US to about 78 million barrels since the beginning of 2021.
External reserve
Nigeria’s external reserve dropped by 0.06% on Wednesday, 9th February 2022 to close at $39.9 billion, which represents a decline of $25.36 million from the $39.92 billion recorded as of the previous day.
The continuous decline in the country’s reserve level can be attributed to the Central Bank’s intervention in the official market in ensuring the stability of the exchange rate. Although it is worth noting that the decline has been very minimal in recent times, largely attributable to the rally in crude oil prices.
Nigeria’s reserve level declined by $481.37 million in January 2022 following the $66.17 million depreciation recorded in the previous month. Meanwhile, year-to-date, Nigeria’s reserve has declined by $625.2 million despite the rally at the global crude oil market.
