The naira has continued to fall in the parallel market exchanging at N470 to a dollar last weekend.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data shows that spot rate or official exchange rate traded flat all week to close at N379/$1.
Similarly, at the parallel market, rates opened at N464/$1 and closed at N470.00/$1, depreciating N6.00 kobo week-on-week.
At the equities market, market capitalisation advanced by N2.1 trillion to N18.3 trillion within the week, while year-to-date return surged to 30.5 per cent.
At the Investors’ & Exporters’ (I&E) Window, the NAFEX rate opened at N386.21/$1.00 and closed at N386.00/$1.00 on Friday, unchanged from the prior week.
Activity level in I&E Window fell by 22.5 per cent to $561.3 million, from $723.9 million recorded in the previous week.
The weakening of the naira has been attributed to the drop in foreign reserves, which lost $31.6 million to close the week at $35.6 billion. Likewise, OPEC+ projection that demand for crude oil will dip in 2021 added to naira’s woes.
Analysts at Afrinvest West Africa Limited said OPEC+ had revised down its oil demand forecasts for the remainder of the year and 2021 as a result of a weaker-than-expected economic outlook and a surge in COVID-19 cases.
– Media Report