Tuesday, August 2, 2022: The Nigerian Investors and Exporters (I&E) FX Window began the trading session on a bullish note as the naira exchanged for the dollar at N427.75/$, implying an uptick of 0.3 percent from the closing price as of the end of trading the previous day. However, as intra-day trading progressed, the naira declined against the dollar to exchange at N430.67/$ as of the close of trading activities, representing a 0.4 percent depreciation day-on-day.
An exchange rate of N444/$ was the highest rate recorded during the intra-day trading before it settled at N430.67/$ at the end of the trading session, while it also traded as low as 415/$ during intra-day trading. According to data from FMDQ, a total of $158.68 million was traded at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) Window for the reporting period, representing an increase of 163 percent from the $60.27 million traded the previous day. The increase in liquidity had a counter-productive effect on the value of the naira, as supposed to cause an uptick in the value of the naira throughout the trading session, but the naira still dropped.
In the parallel market, the naira has been rising against the dollar. As of the close of trading yesterday, it rose to about N655/$ at the parallel (black market), gaining a whooping N30 against the dollar. On a week-on-week basis, the naira also rose by 0.76 percent from N660/$. Trading activities at the B2B market show that the exchange rate closed at about N670/$ for the same period being reported. This is based on the information obtained from BDC operators in Lagos.
Foreign Reserves
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that the gross foreign reserve which has been crawling upward since June 2022 took a downturn to stand at $39.09 billion as of August 1, 2022. Representing a $125.5 million (0.3 percent) decline from $39.25 billion recorded on 28 July 2022.
Capital Market Update
As of August 1, 2022, the Nigerian equities market closed the trading session on a bullish note as the NGX All Share Index (ASI) rose by 135 basis points (bps) to close at 50626.04. The trading volume was 129,166,039 units, decreasing by 27 percent from 176,053,708 units recorded at the end of the previous day of trading. The total value that exchanged hands was N2,861,547,115.76, representing a 26 percent increase (N590,219,741.41) from the value (N2,271,327,374.35) at the close of the previous day of trading.
For the sectors under our review, the indices for some sectors rose while others recorded a different performance. Pension, Consumer Goods, and Banking performances were bullish as the three indices closed in green, the Oil and Gas index remained unchanged, and the Insurance index closed in red. The Pension index having the highest increase, rose by 120 basis points (bps), consumer goods by 114 bps, and banking by just 63 bps. The oil and gas index stabilized, while Insurance had a downturn of just 4 bps.
HONYFLOUR stock led the top gainers as it rose by 9.66 percent, while MCNICHOLS and WAPIC led the top decliners after both dropped by 9.76 percent. FBHN emerged as the most traded stock by volume as 14,594,584 units of its stock were traded, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded by value as it hits N196,244,687.15 in trading as of the end trading session for the reporting period.
