On Thursday, the Nigerian native currency, the Naira, lost its battle against the leading foreign currency, the US dollar, in the foreign exchange market for investors and exporters.
As a consequence of a currency supply constraint in the market, the exchange rate closed at N776.50 per greenback. In midweek, the local currency rose 6.01% to N741.64 amid market consensus that the naira is undervalued following a major FX devaluation intended to converge different exchange rates.
Similarly, the Naira depreciated 1.14% versus the US dollar in the parallel market, reaching N885 after a continued surge in the global oil market.
Brent crude oil price jumped 0.79% to $83.86 per barrel Tuesday, marking a six-week high. In addition, WTI crude rose 1.13% to $80.39 a barrel on expectations of better demand in the United States following the reduction of big stocks.
Analysts said oil futures were higher as investors assessed the impact of Russia and Saudi Arabia’s prolonged output cutbacks, as well as the likelihood of better US demand following a record fall in US crude storage.
In other news, gold was trading at $1,937 per ounce (+0.18%) as investors remained cautious ahead of the US non-farm payroll report.
