Friday, 16th April 2021, the exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N411/$1 at the Investors and Exporters window, where forex is traded officially.
Naira depreciated against the US dollar on Friday 16th April 2021 to close at N411 to a dollar. This represents a 0.12% fall compared to N410.5/$1 recorded on Thursday, 15th April 2021.
The Naira, however, remained stable at the parallel market to close at N482/$1 on Friday, 16th April 2021. The naira maintained its rate at N482 to a dollar in the parallel market for the week.
Meanwhile, the world’s most popular digital asset, Bitcoin suffered its biggest daily intraday loss since February as it dipped about 15% on Saturday and over 6% in the early hours of Monday, 19th April 2021.
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The naira depreciated against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters window on Friday to close at N411/$1. This represents a 50 kobo decline when compared to N410.5/$1 recorded on Thursday, 15th April 2021.
- The opening indicative rate closed at N410.13 to a dollar on Friday. This represents 37 kobo gain compared to N410.5/$1 recorded the previous day.
- Also, an exchange rate of N437.62 to a dollar was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it closed at N411/$1. It also sold for as low as N393/$1 during intra-day trading.
- Forex turnover at the Investor and Exporters (I&E) window dipped by 47% on Friday, 16th April 2021.
- FMDQ showed that forex turnover decreased from $116.16 million recorded on Thursday, April 15th, 2021, to $61.52 million on Friday.
Cryptocurrency watch
The world most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, dipped by 6.1% in the early hours of Monday to trade at $56,377.84 after enduring a bigger loss on Saturday.
- Bitcoin dropped as much as 15% on Saturday, its biggest intraday drop since February, just days after hitting record highs.
- Bitcoin was also down by 6.1% on Monday morning as the total crypto market cap dropped to $2.01 trillion.
- Reports suggested that the downturn was due to speculation that the US Treasury may take action against money laundering that is carried out using digital assets.
- Ethereum also dipped by 3.33% on Monday morning to trade at $2,240.5.
Crude oil dips marginally
Oil prices dipped marginally on Sunday, 18th April 2021 to close at $66.77 per barrel, indicating a 0.25% decline when compared to $66.94 recorded on Saturday.
- Oil prices have, however, recovered significantly in the past week compared to $63.2 recorded at the beginning of the previous week as oil demand begins to boost.
- According to a report by Rystad Energy, global oil demand is projected to increase year-on-year by 6% in 2021, climbing to an average of 95.4 million barrels per day, compared to 89.6 million bpd in 2020.
- it also projected that road fuel demand will rise by 9% in 2021, to 45.1 million barrel per day, from 41.3 million bpd recorded in the previous year.
- Brent Crude closed at $66.77 (-0.25%), WTI Crude closed at $63.13 indicating 0.52% decline, Bonny Light, $65.25 (+0.37%), OPEC Basket (+1.72%) to close at $64.18 while Natural gas dipped by 0.83% to close at $2.68.
External reserve
Nigeria’s external reserve increased by 0.08% on Thursday, 15th April 2021 to stand at $35.23 billion.
- This represents the 18th consecutive increase in Nigeria’s external reserve position having gained $804.77 million since 18th March 2021, about a month ago.
- Nigeria’s external reserve has received a consistent boost in recent times, owing to the growth in the price of crude oil and its policy to pay Nigerians for any unit of dollar received from the diaspora.
- Meanwhile, the country’s reserve position is set to receive a further boost as the Federal Government announced its plans to issue %500 million Eurobonds for 2021.