Naira appreciate against Dollar at parallel market

The Naira on Tuesday gained 40 Kobo to exchange at N359 to the dollar at the parallel market in Lagos, stronger than N359.6 traded on Monday.

The Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N470 and N402, respectively.

Trading at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment saw the naira closing at N360 to the dollar, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro traded at N470 and N402, respectively.

At the investors’ window, the naira exchanged at N360.99 to the dollar as market turnover hit 109.52 million dollars.

Meanwhile, the volume of dollars traded (turnover) in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the Nigerian foreign exchange market dropped by 39 percent, month-on-month, to $4.6 billion last month from $7.48 billion in March, 2019.

This represents the second consecutive monthly decline in the volume of dollars traded (turnover) in the window since February.

After rising by 204 percent to $9.13 billion in February, courtesy of increased inflow from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), the monthly turnover dropped by 22 percent to $7.48 billion in March.

Mercedes-Benz maintains lead with launch of new SUVs Hence, the 39 percent decline in monthly turnover in April suggests slowdown in dollar inflow from FPIs, which accounted for 72.53 percent of total inflow in March.

Analysis of weekly turnover in the window showed that $1.09 was traded in the first week of April, and turnover fell by 11 percent to $966.3 million in the second week but rose again by six percent to $1.03 billion in the third week.

The upward trend was maintained in the fourth week as turnover rose further by17 percent to $1.2 billion.

The window recorded $342.09 million in the last two days of the month. Further analysis shows that the $4.6 billion turnover recorded in April increased year-to-date turnover to $24.2 billion, up by 24 percent from $19.61 billion in March.

However, the naira depreciated slightly by nine kobo in April as the indicative exchange rate of the window rose to N360.69 per dollar on 30th  of  April from N360.60 per dollar on April 1st.