TheCable

The Nigerian currency on Wednesday depreciated against the three major currencies in all the segments of the foreign exchange market, while the country’s stock exchange gained N1.6 billion.

In the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) five trading hours of Wednesday, the bourse gained N1.6 billion, to move from N9.6903 trillion on Tuesday to N9.6918 trillion at the close of trading on Wednesday.

According to NAN, the naira fell by 0.25 points to exchange at N310.08, from N309.83 posted on Tuesday, at the interbank market, after the central bank monetary policy decisions.

Trading at the bureau de change (BDC) market showed that the naira lost 1 point to close at N424 from N423 traded on Tuesday while it exchanged at N549 and N468 against the pound sterling and the euro.

The naira crashed further at the parallel market, exchanging at N428, N550 and N468 to the dollar, pound sterling and the euro, from N424, N550 and N471 posted on Tuesday, respectively.

Currency traders said that liquidity challenges at the Forex market were far from being resolved.

Harisson Owoh, a BDC operator, said that traders expected the liquidity challenge in the market to ease when Travelex, a licensed Forex dealer, commences the sale of Forex to BDCs.

Owoh noted that in the interim, some banks were still selling forex to some BDCs, but that the volume sold could not get across to all the BDCs.