Naira gains as weekly forex liquidity rises to $1.45bn

Foreign exchange liquidity on the official market rose by 7.41 percent last week, helping the Nigerian naira to strengthen against the US dollar, data from a Lagos-based securities exchange show. 

The total turnover in the FX spot and derivatives markets increased to $1.45 billion from $1.35 billion in the previous week, according to FMDQ.

It said the average Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing rate was N1,479.80 per dollar, compared to N1,499.32/$ a week earlier. 

“The week-on-week increase in total turnover was jointly driven by the 7.14% ($95.44 million) and 31.06% ($4.74 million) increases in the FX spot and FX derivatives turnover, respectively,” FMDQ said.

It said the increase in FX derivatives turnover was solely driven by FX forwards, while there was continued lack of activity in both the Exchange-Traded FX Futures and Cleared Naira-Settled Non-Deliverable Forwards markets.

The total value of transactions in the spot market was $1.43 billion, up $1.34 billion in the previous week.