Nigeria’s currency traded lower at an average of N309.94 per dollar Tuesday, data from the FMDQ website showed.
The local currency touched an intraday high of N312/dollar, as FX spot dealers traded $3.560 million in six deals.
Yesterday trading, which open on the platform of FMDQ at 09:40am witnessed $709,500 traded at N307.50. Ahead of the MPC decision, $1 million was traded at 12:19pm at N312/$.
However, the naira yesterday depreciated slightly in value against the dollar by N0.23k to close at N310.07k at the interbank spot market. This represents a 0.07 percent drop from N309.84k/$ closed the previous day, according to data from FMDQ.
The local currency also weakened against the dollar at the parallel market by N3 or 0.80 percent to close at N377/$, as against N374/$ on Monday.
On the other hand, at the autonomous market, it gained N2.70k against the dollar. It closed at N360/$, about 2.70 percent gain from the previous close of N370/$, BusinessDay findings reveal.
Dealers engaged in light trading while expecting yesterday’s outcome of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decisions around the key monetary policy variables.
Nigeria’s MPC met on July 26 and 27, and reviewed domestic and international economic conditions in order to determine the policy direction for the next two months.
Consequently, the Committee increased the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 14 percent from 12 percent; Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) was retained at 22.50 percent, while liquidity ratio was retained at 30 percent.
The price of Nigeria’s major source of revenue, crude oil on Tuesday hit its lowest since May, falling towards $44 a barrel, pressured by concerns that a long-awaited rebalancing of the market would be delayed due to excess supply.
Brent crude is still up more than 60 percent from a 12-year low near $27 in January, but the rally has fizzled out on signs that the supply glut will persist and as economic jitters raised concern about the strength of oil demand.
