Friday, September 1, 2022: The exchange rate at the Nigerian Investors and Exporters (I&E) FX Window began the month on a bearish note with the naira slipping down to close at N430/$1. representing a 0.13 percent decline from the previous day’s closing price of N429.44. This decline came after the naira initially gained 0.1 percent over the dollar as of the beginning of trading activities.
An exchange rate of N437/$ was the highest rate recorded during the intra-day trading before it settled at N430/$1 at the end of the trading session, while it also traded as low as 417/$ during intra-day trading. According to data from FMDQ, a total of $74.68 million was traded at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) Window for the reporting period, representing a decrease of $34.71 million from the $$109.47 million traded the previous day.
At the parallel (black) market, the naira stabilized as it closed at N698/$. On a week-on-week basis, the naira depreciated 0.43 percent against the dollar. Trading activities at the B2B market show that the exchange rate closed at about N700/$ 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 $39.02 billion as of August 30, 2022, increasing by $13.3 million (0.03 percent) from $39 billion recorded on August 29, 2022.
Capital Market Update
As of September 1, 2022, the Nigerian equities market closed the trading session with the NGX All Share Index (ASI) increasing by 11 basis points (bps) to close at 49889.80. The trading volume was 229,120,612 units, decreasing by 37 percent from 367,340,604 units recorded at the end of the previous day’s trading. The total value that exchanged hands was N1,749,760,108.04, representing a 46 percent decrease from the value (N3,237,374,560.57) at the close of the previous day of trading.
There was a mixed performance for the sectors under our review. Banking, Insurance, and Pension indices recorded a bearish performance as their indices closed red. The Consumer Goods and Oil and Gas had a positive performance with their indices closing in green. The Banking index decreased by 43 basis points (bps), insurance by 54 bps, and Pension by 34 bps. On the other hand, the Oil and Gas index increased by 32 bps and Consumer Goods increased by just 9 bps.
PHARMDEKO stock led the top gainers as the share price rose by 7.43 percent, while MBENEFIT led the decliners after dropping by 9.38 percent. STERLNBANK emerged as the most traded stock by volume as 108,698,561 units of its stock were traded at N159,822,757.08. On the other hand, GTCO was the most traded by value as N680,452,323.60 exchanged hands for 34,251,757 units of its shares.
