Nigeria’s currency on Tuesday strengthened marginally against the dollar by 0.03 percent at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, following improved foreign exchange inflow.
The daily foreign exchange market turnover rose by 55.41 percent to $47.93 million on Tuesday from $30.84 million recorded on Monday.
After trading on Tuesday, naira closed at N409.00k per dollar compared to N409.13k/$ closed on Monday at the I&E window.
Currency traders who participated in the trading on Tuesday maintained bids at between N400.00k and N411.00k/$, data from the FMDQ show.
Naira weakened by 0.20 percent as the dollar closed at N486 on Tuesday as against N485 closed on Monday at the parallel market.
Exchange rate remained flat at N485 at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday.
Nigeria’s external reserves have risen to $34.76 billion as at March 29, 2021, from the last drop of $34.41 billion as of March 18, 2021 according to data obtained from the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The improvement in foreign exchange reserves was as a result of recent increase in the price of oil. The price of Brent crude oil (petroleum), which has remained at about $40 per barrel, has risen to $64.00 per barrel as at 20.20 pm on Tuesday, March 30, 2020.
At the money market on Tuesday, the Nigerian Treasury Bills secondary market closed on a positive note with average yield across the curve decreasing by 9 bps to close at 4.13 percent from 4.22 percent on the previous day, a report by FSDH noted.
The average yields across short-term and medium-term maturities declined by 7 bps and 27 bps, respectively. However, the average yield across long-term maturities closed flat at 5.34 percent. Yields on 5 bills declined with the 15-Jul-21 maturity bill recording the highest yield decline of 60 bps, while yields on 14 bills remained unchanged.
The CBN is scheduled to conduct a Primary Market Auction to roll over NT-bills maturities worth N95.68 billion across 91-day (N10.00 billion), 182-day (N17.60 billion), and 364-day (N68.08 billion) tenors on Wednesday.
The Overnight (O/N) rate decreased by 5.83 percent to close at 7.17 percent on Tuesday as against the last close of 13.00 percent on Monday, and the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate decreased by 5.67 percent to close at 6.33 percent from 12.00 percent on the previous day. Money market rates decreased by an average of 575 bps, following the Open Market Operation (OMO) repayment of N169.25 billion.
