I & E FX window: Naira depreciates by 2.23% to N539.11/ £

By Kayode Tokede

Naira against the pound sterling depreciated by .223 per cent to close at BN539.11 at the Investors & Exporters Foreign Exchange (I & E FX) window on Thursday.

The local currency at the I & E FX window also closed down by 0.63per cent and 2.42 per cent to close against the dollar and euro at N401.00 and N473.19 respectively.

According to the FMDQ, a turnover of $79.07 million was traded at the I & E FX window on Thursday.

At the parallel market, the Naira closed up against the  euro, dollar and pound sterling  by 0.87per cent, 0.63per cent and 0.31per cent to print at N570, N475 and N650 respectively.

Naira at the Interbank market of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) traded flat at N379 against the dollar.

According to analysts at Investment One research, “Going forward, we expect the FX market to be dictated by heightened dollar demand and CBN FX policies.”

Money market rates rose today as Open Buy Back and Overnight rates inched up by 33basis points and 58basis points  to close at 5.33per cent and 5.83 per cent respectively.

The bond market was negative on Thursday as yield tilted upwards across most maturities along the curve.

Consequently, we witnessed the yield on the 5yr benchmark bond close flat at 8.40 per cent, while the 10yr benchmark bond yield inched up by eight basis points  to print at 10.44per cent.

Conversely, the yield on the 7yr benchmark bond closed down by seven basis points to close at 9.90per cent.