Naira Reverses Gain At Black Market As CBN Moves To Increase Forex Allocation To BDCs

Friday, 18th June 2021: The exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N411/$1 at the official Investors and Exporters window.

Naira appreciated on Friday against the US dollar to close at N411 to a dollar compared to N411.5/$1 recorded on Thursday, 17th June, 2021.

Also, the exchange rate depreciated at the parallel market to close at N498/$1 compared to N493/$1 recorded on Thursday. This represents a N5 drop after the previous trading day’s significant gain.

The naira fell at the parallel market after the previous trading day’s significant increase due to improved forex supply with speculators losing big as ABCON had warned against hoarding and speculative behaviour by dealers, which they said would result in heavy collateral losses.

The CBN, as a fallout of its meeting with ABCON, has moved to increase forex allocation to BDCs and sustain the funding for about 5,000 members of the association.

Trading at the official NAFEX window

Naira appreciated against the US dollar at the Investors and Exporters window on Friday to close at N411/$1, representing a 50 kobo gain when compared to the N411.5/$1 that was recorded the previous day.

• The opening indicative rate closed at N411.58 to a dollar on Friday, 18th June 2021, representing a 4 kobo depreciation when compared to the N411.54/$1 recorded on Thursday, 17th June 2021.
• Also, an exchange rate of N413.67/$1 was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading, before it settled at N411/$1. It also sold for as low as N395.45/$1 during intra-day trading.
• Forex turnover at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window increased significantly by 82.3% on Friday, 18th June 2021.
• Data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ showed that forex turnover increased from $138.2 million recorded on Thursday, 17th June 2021 to $252 million on Thursday, 17th June 2021.

Cryptocurrency watch

The world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, continued in its bearish trend as it declined by a further 0.20% to close at $35,659.54 on Sunday evening as the total crypto market value decreased to $1.4 trillion in the last 24 hours, losing nearly 8%.

• A sell-off in the crypto market has continued into the weekend, with the world’s two biggest cryptos, Bitcoin and Ethereum, both declining further as China’s crackdown gathers pace.

• China extended the clampdown on the Bitcoin mining industry to its biggest Bitcoin producing provinces, including the southwest province of Sichuan.

• Earlier in the day, Bitcoin fell below the $35,000 mark on the news, crashing by 7.9% to $33,596. Ethereum, the second-biggest crypto by market cap, fell by 9.2% to trade at $2,065. Meme token, Dogecoin, dropped 12.5% to $0.26 during the session.

• Ethereum was up by 3.16% on Sunday evening to close at $2,254.82.

Crude oil

Crude oil prices rose on Friday after the previous trading day’s drop as Brent Crude closed at $73.51 per barrel as sources from OPEC said that US shale producers were not expected to significantly raise crude production this year, despite higher oil prices.

• Brent crude oil declined by 0.59% as of Sunday evening, 20th June 2021 to close at $73.51 per barrel.

• US production has been hovering at around 11 million BPD in recent months, down by 2 million BPD from the record highs early in 2020, before the pandemic slammed demand and crashed oil prices.

• The US shale restraint makes OPEC’s job of managing oil supply to the market much easier if the projection of limited US growth this year occurs.

• Meanwhile, rising oil demand in the US and flat domestic production in recent months have boosted the price of the US oil benchmark WTI Crude, which has significantly narrowed the discount to Brent Crude in recent weeks.

• WTI Crude rose by 0.84% to close at $71.64, Bonny Light gained 0.37% to close at $73.04 per barrel, OPEC Basket recorded a 1.19% drop to close at $72.29, while Natural Gas dipped 1.17% to close at $3.215.

External reserve

Nigeria’s external reserve continued its slide on Thursday, 17th June 2021 as it dropped by $30 million to close at $33.794 billion.

• This represents a 0.09% decline compared to $33.824 billion recorded on Wednesday, 16th June 2021.

• A total of $1.58 billion has been lost in reserves year-to-date, while month-to-date loss stands at $405.33 million.

• Nigeria’s forex reserve continues to trend downwards despite the positive rally recorded in the global crude oil market, with Brent crude currently trading at $73.5 per barrel.

• It is worth noting that India’s oil imports have started recovering after months of lessened activities due to the covid-19 pandemic’s effect on the country’s economy.