Naira depreciates by 0.02% to N394.33/$ at I & EFX market

By Kayode Tokede

Naira depreciated by 0.02 per cent to N394.33 against the dollar at the Investors & Exporters Foreign Exchange ( I & EFX) window on Thursday.

The local currency closed down by 1.21per cent and 1.38 per cent against the euro and pound sterling to print at N477.26 and N540.39 respectively.

According to FMDQ Exchange, a turnover of $37.58million was traded by investors & exporters on Thursday as against $51.51million turnover traded by investors and exporters on Wednesday.

At the parallel market, the Naira closed flat against the pound sterling, euro and dollar at N650, N580 and N478 respectively.

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

The NTB secondary market was bearish, as average yield expanded by 50basis points to 1.1per cent.

Across the curve, average yield was higher across all the tenors – short (+28 basis points), mid (+30basis points) and long (+76 basis points) – due to upward repricing of the 14DTM (+49 basis points), 182DTM (+63 basis points) and 259DTM (+107 basis points) instruments, respectively.

Elsewhere, trading at the OMO segment (average yield flat at 1.6per cent) was relatively quiet, as market participants positioned for renewed supply at the primary market.

The Treasury bonds secondary market maintained its bearish stance, as average yield expanded by six basis points to 7.4 per cent.

Across the curve, average yield contracted at the short (-6 basis points) end, following buying activity in the JAN-2022 (-86 basis points) bond, and expanded at the mid (+34 basis points) segment, due to profit-taking on the APR-2029 (+48 basis points) bond; the long end was flat.