Last week, supply curbs by the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)+ and decline in US shale oil inventory buoyed the oil market, as crude oil prices increased 6.0 per cent week-on-week (w/w) to close at $66.77/b.
On the domestic front, external reserves inched higher by 0.6 per cent w/w to $35.0 billion.
In the foreign exchange (forex) market, the naira traded flat at CBN spot to settle at N379/$ w/w while in the parallel market, the naira appreciated by N3.00 w/w to N482.00/$.
In the Importers’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window, the naira depreciated by N2.00 w/w to N411.00/$. Activity level in the I & E window rose by 60.6 per cent to N292.2 million from N181.9 million in the previous week.
At the FMDQ Securities Exchange (SE) FX Futures Contract Market, the total value of open contracts increased by 1.6 per cent ($82.8 million) to $5.3 billion. The APR 2022 instrument (Contract price: N437.88) saw a significant gain as there was an increase of 281.0 per cent to $85.7 million in the total value. The JUN 2021 instrument (Contract price: N422.08) recorded the least buying interest as total value rose 1.4 per cent to $283.6 million.
“In the coming week, we anticipate rates to remain in the same band across the segments of the forex market”, said analysts at Afrinvest.
Liquidity level rose at the start of week compared to the prior week’s close and ended the week higher at N599.3 billion, despite the Open Market Operation (OMO) and T-bills auctions.
