Naira posts big weekly loss against dollar
Nigeria’s currency, naira, lost 1.16 percent of its value against the dollar this week at the official spot market, data from FMDQ Group show.
The average Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing rate closed at N452.76/$ on Friday, compared to N447.58/$ last week, according to FMDQ weekly foreign exchange market analysis report.
It said the total turnover in the FX spot and derivatives markets increased to $1.15 billion this week from $1.07 billion last week.
“The week-on-week increase in total turnover was solely driven by the 83.07 percent ($189.58 million) increase in FX derivatives turnover despite the 13.07 percent ($110.66 million) decrease in FX spot turnover,” the report said.
FMDQ said the increase in FX derivatives turnover was jointly driven by the 870.42 percent and 41.06 percent increases in FX forwards and FX futures turnover respectively.
It said the total value of transactions in the FX spot market dropped to $735.71million from $846.37 million last week.
“In the FX futures market, $305.62 million worth of FX futures contracts were traded in 16 deals, representing a WoW increase of 41.06 percent ($88.96 million) when compared to the $216.66 million FX futures contracts traded in 46 deals recorded in the week ended December 16, 2022,” it added.
