Wednesday, 9th March 2022: The exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N416.5/$1 at the official Investors and Exporters (I&E) window.
The exchange rate at the I&E window remained stable, albeit a marginal depreciation to close at N416.5/$1 on Wednesday, representing a 0.12% fall compared to N416/$1 recorded on Tuesday, 8th March 2022.
Similarly, naira continues to sell for a minimum of N575/$1 at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) market, maintaining the same rate in the past three trading sessions. The exchange rate has held its status despite the fear of a devaluation following the Russia-Ukraine face-off that has lingered in the second week.
Meanwhile, the exchange rate at the parallel market depreciated by 0.35% to close at N580/$1 from N578 to a dollar recorded on Tuesday, 8th March 2022. This is according to information obtained from BDC operators interviewed by Nairametrics.
The depreciation of the naira against the US dollar has been attributed to increased demand for FX in the non-official markets, while the marginal downturn at the I&E window is the usually managed movement, floating between N415/$1 and N416.67$1.
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The exchange rate at the Investors and Exporters window closed at N416.5/$1 on Wednesday, 9th March 2022, a 0.12% depreciation from N416 to a dollar recorded on Tuesday.
- The opening indicative rate closed at N416.21/$1 on Wednesday, representing a 19 kobo depreciation compared to the N416.02/$1 recorded on Tuesday, 8th March 2022.
- An exchange rate of N444/$1 was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N416.5/$1, while it sold for as low as N410/$1 during intra-day trading,
- It is worth noting that information on the daily forex turnover at the Investors and Exporters window has not been available on the official exchange rate source (FMDQ).
Crypto market
Crypto market started on a bearish note on Thursday with over $96 billion lost in market capitalization in the early trading hours, as the industry capitalization dipped by 5.32% to stand at $1.713 trillion. The movement in the market can be attributed to the sell sentiments in the most capitalized crypto assets.
Bitcoin, depreciated by 6.45% to trade at $39,253.33 on Thursday morning. In the same vein, Ethereum recorded a 5.01% decline in price to trade at $2,592. Also, Solana dipped by 6.25% to trade at $82.5225. Meanwhile, Terra and Uniswap both dipped by 4.55% and 6.51% to trade at $94.734 and $8.61 respectively.
The crash of the crypto market is following the rally of bitcoin in the previous trading session where the flagship crypto-asset gained over 8% in a single day to hit $41.5k as investors move their funds to cryptos as uncertainty surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war sparks a downturn in the equities market.
