Wednesday, August 24, 2022: The Nigerian Investors and Exporters (I&E) FX Window closed the trading session on a bearish note with the naira slipping down to close at N431/$1 from the previous day’s closing price of N430.67 This represents a decline of 0.08 percent.
An exchange rate of N444/$ was the highest rate recorded during the intra-day trading before it settled at N431/$ at the end of the trading session, while it also traded as low as 417/$ during intra-day trading. According to data from FMDQ, a total of $131.30M million was traded at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) Window for the reporting period, representing a decrease of 19 percent from the $161.94 million traded the previous day.
At the parallel (black) market, the naira weakened by 0.3 percent against the US dollar as it closed at N683/$1. On a week-on-week basis, the naira depreciated 1.2 percent against the dollar. Trading activities at the B2B market show that the exchange rate closed at about N692/$ for the same period being reported. This is based on the information obtained from forex marketers in Lagos.
Foreign Reserves
According to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the gross foreign reserve ticked up slightly to $38.941 billion as of August 23, 2022, increasing by $1.4 million (0.003 percent) from $38.940 billion recorded on August 22, 2022. This represents the 5th consecutive increase since August 16, 2022.
Capital Market Update
As of August 24, 2022, the Nigerian equities market closed the trading session with the NGX All Share Index (ASI) increasing by 25 basis points (bps) to close at 48,675.24. The trading volume was 167,569,257 units. The total value that exchanged hands was N3,373,708,913.12.
All the sectors under our review recorded a bullish performance as their indices increased. The insurance index, having the highest increase, rose by 217 basis points (bps), banking by 56 bps, oil and gas by 16 bps, pension by 10 bps, and consumer goods rose by only 9 bps.
NEM stock led the top gainers as their shares rose by 10 percent, while FIDSON led the decliners after dropping by 9.80 percent. ACCESSCORP emerged as the most traded stock by volume as 27,897,677 units of its stock were traded at N231144303.40. On the other hand, GTCO was the most traded by value as N323,987,814.20 exchanged hands for 16,087,931 units of its shares.
