Wednesday, July 13, 2022: The Nigerian Investors and Exporters (I&E) FX Window closed yesterday’s trading session with the Naira slipping down slightly to N424.58/$1 at the official market representing a 0.04 percent decline against the Dollar.
An exchange rate of N444/$1 remained the highest rate recorded during the intra-day trading before it settled at N424.58/$1 at the end of the trading session, while it also traded as low at 411.42 during intra-day trading. According to data from FMDQ, a total of $68.84 million was traded at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) Window for the reported period.
In the parallel market, Naira closed against the dollar at N616/$1, declining by 0.2 percent compared to N615/$1 traded on Friday of the previous week. Trading activities at the B2B market show that the exchange rate closed at about N622/$1 for the same period being reported. This is based on the information obtained from BDC operators in Lagos.
Nigeria’s gross external reserve has been relatively stable since June 2022. According to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as of July 8, Nigeria’s foreign reserve stands at $39.35 billion, improving slightly by $9.9 million (0.03 percent) from 39.34 billion recorded the previous day.
The improvement in the external reserves has been on the back of the rising crude oil prices with the CBN’s market intervention cushioning the supply shock of the greenback and helping to stabilize the naira.
Capital Market Update
As of July 13, 2022, the Nigerian equities market closed the trading session on a bearish note as the NGX All Share Index (ASI) dipped by 32 basis points (bps) to close at 51390.25. The trading volume was 198,816,000 units representing a 72.7 percent growth from 115.12 million units. While the total value that exchanged hands was N2,181,622,961.21, growing by 22.6 percent from N1.8 billion
Mixed performance was observed for the sectors under our review as the NGX indices for three sectors increased, while the other two declined. Banking, Pension, and Consumer Goods sectors, performances were bullish as the three indices closed in green while the Oil and Gas and insurance indices closed in red. The banking index rose by 5bps, Pension 6bps, and Consumer Goods 31bps. Oil and gas dipped by 4bps, and Insurance led the losers with a 296bps decline.
CGW led the top gainers having risen by 9% despite a market dip of 32bps. On the other hand, UNITYBNK led the losers after dropping by 2.2% at the end of the trading session.
