Thursday, August 25, 2022: Naira weakens against the US dollar as it currently exchanges for N696/$1 at the parallel (black) market. On a week-on-week basis, the naira depreciated 3 percent against the dollar. Trading activities at the B2B market show that the exchange rate closed at about N702/$ for the same period being reported. This is based on the information obtained from forex marketers in Lagos.
The I&E Window
The Nigerian Investors and Exporters (I&E) FX Window closed the trading session on a bullish note with the naira appreciating to close at N430.67/$1 from the previous day’s closing price of N431. This represents an increase of 0.08 percent. This appreciation in the value of the naira at the official market came despite a 39 percent decrease in forex turnover.
An exchange rate of N444/$ 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 417/$ during intra-day trading. According to data from FMDQ, a total of $82.88 million was traded at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) Window for the reporting period, representing a decrease of $48.42 from the $131.30 million traded the previous day.
Foreign Reserves
According to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the gross foreign reserve ticked down to $38.940 billion as of August 24, 2022, decreasing by $1.2 million (0.003 percent) from $38.941 billion recorded on August 23, 2022. This decline has offset the appreciation recorded some days ago.
Capital Market Update
As of August 25, 2022, the Nigerian equities market closed the trading session with the NGX All Share Index (ASI) declining by 5 basis points (bps) to close at 49661.87. The trading volume was 110,917,816 units, decreasing by 34 percent from 167,569,257 units recorded at the end of the previous day’s trading. The total value that exchanged hands was N3,897,334,366.86, representing a 16 percent increase from the value (N3,373,708,913.12) at the close of the previous day of trading.
All the sectors under our review had a bullish performance as their indices closed in green. The consumer goods index rose by 77 basis points (bps), oil and gas by 65 bps, insurance by 35 bps, banking by 19 basis points, and pension index increased by just 2 bps.
MBENEFIT stock led the top gainers as its shares rose by 7.14 percent, while UBN led the decliners after dropping by 6.67 percent. JAIZBANK emerged as the most traded stock by volume as 38,529,724 units of its stock were traded at N32,752,080.80. On the other hand, ACCESSCORP was the most traded by value as N132,879,177.65 exchanged hands for 16.244,377 units of its shares.
