Monday, 18th October 2021: The exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N414.73/$1, at the Investors and Exporters window, where forex is traded officially.
Naira appreciated further against the US dollar to close at N414.73/$1 on Monday, 18th October 2021. The exchange rate gained marginally by 0.08% from N415.07/$1 recorded on Friday.
In the same vein, naira gained 0.09% to N572/$1 on Monday, 18th October 2021 compared to N573.5/$1 recorded as of the close of trade on Friday, 15th October 2021. This is according to information obtained by Nairametrics from BDC operators in Lagos.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s foreign reserve recorded a further boost of $199.24 million on Friday, 15th October 2021 to close at $39.82 billion compared to $39.62 billion recorded as of the previous day. The reserve position has gained $3.04 billion so far in the month of October.
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The exchange rate depreciated against the US dollar on Monday, 18th October 2021 to close the day at N414.73 to a dollar, representing a 0.08% gain compared to N415.07/$1 recorded on Friday, 15th October 2021.
The opening indicative rate closed at N414.46/$1 on Monday, representing a 63 kobo appreciation compared to N415.09/$1 recorded in the previous trading day.
An exchange rate of N425 to a dollar was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N435.3/$1, while it sold for as low as N405/$1 during intra-day trading.
Meanwhile, forex turnover at the official window declined by 54.4% on Monday, 18th October 2021.
According to data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ, forex turnover dropped from $377.28 million recorded on Friday to $172 million on Monday 18th October 2021.
Cryptocurrency watch
The cryptocurrency market dipped marginally on Monday as the industries market capitalisation dropped by 0.65% to close at $2.475 trillion, indicating a loss of $16.86 billion to crypto investors.
However, the flagship crypto and the most capitalised cryptocurrency continued in its bullish trend as it gained 0.3% to close at $61,723.06, while Ethereum declined by 2.98% to close at $3,730.22.
XRP closed bearish with a 0.81% drop to close at $1.08444.
Meanwhile, the US regulators, SEC are reportedly set to allow the first US Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund to start trading. This is according to report obtained from Aljazeera.
In the same, Nairametrics had reported that the Twitter boss, Jack Dorsey, who is also the CEO of Square, an American financial technology service provider announced that Square will soon begin investigating technical requirements for building an open-source Bitcoin (BTC) mining system.
Crude oil price
The crude oil market closed bearish on Monday as Brent Crude closed at $84.15 per barrel indicating a 0.84% decline, despite surpassing the $85 threshold earlier in the day.
However, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained marginally by 0.01% to close at $82.29 per barrel, while the OPEC Basket recorded a gain of 1.26% to close at $83.54 per barrel. Bonny Light also gained 1.71% to close at $84.34 per barrel on Monday.
The other Nigerian crudes, Brass River and Qua Iboe also gained 0.92% each to close at $85.06 per barrel on Monday.
External reserve
Nigeria’s foreign reserve gained $199.24 million on Friday, 15th October 2021 to close at $39.82 billion compared to $39.62 billion recorded as of the previous day. The latest increase represents a 0.5% increase in the country’s foreign reserve.
The nation’s foreign reserve has gained $3.04 billion so far in the month of October, higher than the $2.76 billion gain recorded in September 2021, while the recent gain puts the year-to-date gain at $4.45 billion.
The recent increase in the reserve position, which has continued since 25th of August is in line with recent report suggesting that Nigeria’s foreign reserve position could grow as high as $40 billion by the end of September 2021.
It is worth noting that the reserve is closing in on hitting the $40 billion mark, with the $4 billion raised by the federal government through Eurobond sourced from the international debt market.
