Naira drops to N494.00/$ at parallel market

The Nigerian currency, Naira, on Thursday, depreciated further by 1.4per cent to N494.00 against the US dollar, compared to N487/$1 closed at the parallel market on Wednesday.

The local currency, however, remained unchanged at the Investors & Exporters Foreign Exchange (I & EFX) window at N393.25 per dollar.

Although, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, had said that the Nigerian official exchange rate should not be determined by the rate at the parallel market.

While considering the daily forex transactions turnover at the investors & exporters foreign exchange market on Thursday, statistics obtained from the FMDQ Exchange showed that a total turnover of $52.09 million was traded.

At the CBN’s interbank market, the local currency traded flat at N379 against the dollar yesterday.

However, the overnight lending rate expanded by 25basis points to 1.0per cent, following outflows from the system for the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) weekly Open Market Operation (OMO) auction.

Trading in the NTB secondary market was mixed, following reduced activity in the space. Thus, the average yield was unchanged at 0.1per cent. Similarly, the average yield at the OMO secondary market was flat at 0.2 per cent.

The Treasury bonds secondary market was mixed, albeit with a bearish tilt, as the average yield was flat at 3.9 per cent.

Across the curve, average yield expanded at the short (+2bps) and mid (+11bps) segments, following profit-taking on the JAN-2026 (+48bps) and MAR-2027 (+29bps) bonds, respectively. Conversely, it declined at the long (-7bps) end, due to demand for the MAR-2050 (-25bps) bond.