MONDAY, 28 JUNE 2010 01:11 BLESSING ANARO  

 

The Naira is expected to have a good run this week following anticipated flooding of the market with United States dollars from oil companies. Specifically, Chevron is said to have sent a notice of its month-end dollar sales to some banks for today.“More energy firms are expected to sell dollars next week (this week) as part of their month-end activities and the local currency is seen rising further”, reported Reuters. Last week, NNPC sold $350 million, Total sold $53 million and Addax $7 million, thus raising dollar liquidity in the market, dealers said.

 

The result is that Naira appreciated to N150.93/$ on Friday from N151.20/$ a day earlier after the $410 million sold to retail banks by some oil firms came into the market, traders said. The Naira sold at N151.90/$ on the inter-bank on Tuesday, but firmed to N151.40/$ on Wednesday after the central bank supplied all the $243.13 million demanded at its auction, and some oil firms announced they would sell the greenback to some banks.The central bank sold a total of $522 million at its two auctions last week, with the Naira firming to N148.60/$ on Wednesday from N148.65/$ on Monday.

 

The CBN had the previous week upped supply from $600 million it offered the previous week to $700 million last week.At the foreign exchange auction held the previous Monday, June 14, 2010, the CBN offered a total of $400 million, while demand stood at $383.70 million, representing 95.93 percent of what was offered, while the sale was same as the demand.

 

On Wednesday, June 16, 2010, the CBN offered $300 million, while demand stood at $273.47 million, representing 91.16 percent of what was offered, and the sale was same as the demand. During the week, a total of $700 million was offered, compared to $600 million the previous week, while $657.18 million was sold, same as the demand, representing 93.88 percent of the offer.In spite of the increase, the value of the Naira only appreciated at the official market, depreciated at the inter-bank, while it was stable at the parallel market segment of the foreign exchange market.

 

At the official segment of the foreign exchange market, the value of the Naira appreciated by 18 kobo to close at N148.71/$, compared to N148.89/$ in the previous week. At the inter-bank segment of the foreign exchange market, the value of the Naira depreciated by 37 kobo to close at N151.60/$ from the previous week’s figure of N151.23/$, while at the parallel market, the Naira was stable at N153.50/$.

 

(Source:BusinessDay)