Tuesday, September 20, 2022: The rate at which the naira exchanges for the dollar at the Nigerian Investors and Exporters (I&E) FX Window has remained stable at about N436/$1 for the past two weeks, with few variations daily. This is based on the information our research analyst compiled from FMDQ Exchange limited. As of September 20, 2022, the I&E window rate stands at N436.25/$1. At the opening of the day’s trading, the exchange rate was N435.07/$1 before it settled at N436.25, dropping by 0.3.
An exchange rate of N437.10/$1 was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N436.50/$1 at the end of the trading session, while it also traded as low as 434/$ during intra-day trading.
Historic rates from FMDQ show that the dollar hit the N436 price on September 6, 2022, and has hovered around this level up till the time of this writing where a dollar cost N436.25.
Notably, the large volatility in forex supply to the official market has not had any significant impact on the exchange rate between the currency pairs. For instance, as of September 20, 2022, the forex turnover in the I&E window jumped by 245 percent, having increased from a meager $41.02M the previous day to $141.51M, this only caused an insignificant 0.06 percent appreciation (from 436.50 to 436.25) in the value of the naira. Essentially, for the last two weeks, the exchange rate in the official I&E window has shown a low degree of responsiveness to forex supply in the market.
Trading activities at the parallel (black) market show that the naira appreciated against the dollar to about N705/$, rising from the previous N708 to a dollar exchange rate. This represents a 0.4 percent rise on a day-on-day basis. On a week-on-week basis, it also gained slightly from the dollar. Trading activities at the B2B market show that the naira rose slightly, gaining 2 naira to the dollar as it trades for about N711/$ for the same period being reported. This is based on the information obtained from forex marketers in Lagos.
Foreign Reserves
According to the data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the gross foreign reserve has been declining and currently stands at $38.57 billion as of September 19, 2022, dropping by 0.2 percent from $38.65 billion recorded on September 16, 2022.
Capital Market Update
As of September 20, 2022, the Nigerian equities market closed the trading session with the NGX All Share Index (ASI) increasing insignificantly by 1 basis point (bps) to close at 49445.31. The trading volume was 147,585,264 units. The total value that exchanged hands was N2,393,849,115.36.
Two of the sectors under our purview had a negative performance as their indices closed red, while the remaining three sectors closed green. The Pension index increased by 30bps, Banking by 22bps and that of Insurance rose by 15bps. On the other hand, the Oil and Gas index declined by 230bps and Consumer Goods by 5bps.
RTBRISCOE stock led the top gainers as the share price rose by 10 percent, while TOTAL led the decliners after dropping by 9.98 percent. GTCO emerged as the most traded stock by volume as well as by value. 693,692,698.10 exchanged hands for 358,19,812 units of its stock.
