Forex: Naira gains at Investors & Exporters window to N385.83/$

The Nigerian local currency, Naira, at the end of trading activities at the Investors & Exporters (I & E FX) window appreciated marginally by 0.04 per cent as the dollar was quoted at N385.83 on Thursday, compared to N386 sold on Wednesday.

The volume traded at I & E FX improved at $41.48million on Thursday as against the second low volume of $3.97million on August 13.

Most participants maintained bids between N380 and N386 per dollar.

At the parallel market, the Naira remained flat against the Euro, Dollar and Pound to close at N547, N475 and N605 respectively.

Meanwhile, as of August 13, the overnight (O/N) rate declined by 1.46 per cent to close at 3.79 per cent as against 5.25 per cent and the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate also declined by 1.33 per cent to close at three per cent from 4.33 per cent on the previous day.

The money market rates dropped by an average of 140 basis points as the system liquidity improved following maturities of NT-bills worth N56.78billion and OMO bills worth N29.78billion. The money market rates could witness upward pressure on Friday due to the anticipated OMO bills auction and bi-weekly FX retail auction.

The NT-bills market closed on a positive note with average yield across the curve declining by 12 basis points to close at 1.59 per cent from 1.71 per cent on the previous day.

Average yields across short-term and medium-term maturities compressed by nine basis points and 28 basis points, respectively, due to the maximum buying interest witnessed in the NTB 11-Feb-21 (-75 basis points), NTB 28-Jan-21 (-37 basis points) and NTB 17-Sep-20 (-31 basis points) maturity bills. However, the average yield across long-term maturities remained unchanged.