Naira trades flat at parallel market

The Naira remained flat against the dollar, euro and pounds at the parallel market on Thursday to close at N470, N573 and N628 respectively.

However at the Investors & Exporters Foreign Exchange (I & EFX) window, while the Naira inched down by 0.43per cent and 0.48 per cent against the euro and pound to print at N472.04 and N521.44 respectively, it closed up by 0.04per cent vs the dollar printing at N393.67.

FMDQ Exchange said, a total of $32.41million was traded by investors and exporters on Thursday.

Nigerian NewsDirect gathered that foreign exchange at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) interbank market traded flat at N379 on Thursday.

The parallel market where foreign exchange traded unofficially, the exchange rate continued to remain stable at N470/$1 on Wednesday.. The exchange rate at the parallel market closed at N470/$1 on the previous trading Tuesday.

It has been trading at N470/$1 since the 29th of December 2020.

The exchange rate disparity between the parallel market and the official market widened again to N75.5, representing a 16per cent devaluation differential.

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

Meanwhile, the money market rates closed flat today as Open Buy Back and Overnight rate remained unchanged at 0.38per cent and 0.75 per cent respectively.

The bond market traded on a mixed note today as yields moved in different directions across the curve. We witnessed the yield on the 7yr benchmark bond close flat at 6.33 per cent, while the 5yr benchmark bond inched down by 10basis points to close at 5.51 per cent.

Conversely, the yield on the 10yr benchmark bond was up 31basis points to 7.58 per cent.

“In the near term, we expect market activity to be influenced by liquidity levels and foreign investor participation,” analysts at investmentone research added.