Commentary on the foreign exchange (FX) market with data for the week-ended May 4, 2018. 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervened through its periodic supply of US Dollars in the FX market, offering $100.00 million at a marginal rate of $/₦332.00 via a Single Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) – Wholesale session held during the week-ended May 4, 2018.

The apex bank also maintained its intervention for Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) & Retail Invisible transactions supplying $55.00 million each for both interventions.

In the Investors’ & Exporters’ (I&E) FX Window, the total value of trades recorded for the week- ended April 27, 2018 stood at $0.92 billion.

This represents a decrease of 29.77% ($0.39 billion) when compared to the $1.31 billion traded in the previous week, bringing the total value traded at the Window year-to-date to $19.95 billion

For the reporting week-ended May 4, 2018, the CBN official rate fell by ₦0.45 to close at $/₦305.20, indicating a 0.15% appreciation when compared to $/₦305.65 recorded the previous week-ended April 27, 2018

In the Bureau de Change (BDC) market, still at the end of the reporting week, the exchange rate, remained unchanged to close at $/₦363.00

For the reporting week-ended May 4, 2018, the Naira depreciated at the I&E FX Window, losing ₦0.24 as the rate opened the week at $/₦360.51, and closed at $/
₦360.75, resulting in a spread of $/₦2.25 between the BDC market rate and I&E FX Window rate

On the other hand, the spread between the BDC market rate and the CBN official exchange rate rose by ₦0.45 to close at $/₦57.80, indicating a 0.78% increase from the $/₦57.35 recorded in the previous week

In the OTC FX Futures market, $192.59 million worth of OTC FX Futures contracts were traded in eight (8) deals, compared to the total for the previous week (ended April 27, 2018) of $483.87 million traded in fourteen (14) deals

Dealing Member-Client Spot FX Market Turnover Report.

For the week-ended April 27, 2018, trading activity in the Spot FX market between the DMBs and their clients stood at $1,792.95 million (average daily turnover of $358.59 million), representing 8.18% decrease from the $1,952.75 million (average daily turnover of $390.55 million), recorded the week-ended April 20, 2018
A review of trading activity in the Spot FX market amongst banks for the week-ended April 27, 2018 revealed a 22.36% increase, as a total turnover of $307.46 million (average daily turnover of $61.49 million) was recorded, against the $251.28 million (average daily turnover of $50.26 million) reported the week-ended April 20, 2018.