FMDQ FX Market Hits $445.6 Million Turnover Milestone in Just Five Days

The FMDQ Securities Exchange recently posted a total turnover of $417.9 million in its FX Spot and derivatives market segment for the week that finished August 25, 2023.

The data released represents a decline of 32.61% ($202.2 million) from $620.1 million reported for the week that finished August 18, 2023.

The fall was due to the continued crisis in the market due to the poor performance of the naira against other currencies and increased liquidity across different windows.

The fall of the naira continued till the weekend when the naira traded for N905/$ at the parallel market on Sunday. On the other end, dealers who were waiting for other dealers to release the rate for the week said that they hope that the funding of the BDC by the CBN will cushion the market pressure.

Also, the CBN expects Bureau de Change operators to sell at a margin of -2.5/+2.5 percent of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market window weighted average rate of the previous day. 

Talking about the week-on-week (WoW), the FMDQ said that the decline in total turnover was driven by a 34.4% (207.09 million) decrease in FX spot turnover even with the 555.7% ($4.98 million) increase in FX derivatives turnover.

FMDQ stated that the WoW increase in FX derivatives turnover was driven by a 555.68% ($4.89 million) increase in FX Forwards turnover, showing the sustained lack of activity in both exchange-traded FX Futures and Naira-Settled OTC FX Futures markets.

The total value of transactions at the FX Spot market that ended August 25, 2023, was $412.13 million which showed a decline of 33.4% ($207.09 million) from the value of transactions executed in the week ended August 18, 2023 ($619.22 million).

It also showed that there was no trade executed in the Exchange-Traded FX Futures and extant Naira-Settled OTC FX Futures markets for the week that ended August 25, 2023.

The average Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) rate was #722.68/$ when compared to #772.14 recorded in the week that ended August 18, 2023, showing a decline of the Naira against the dollar by 0.07% ($/#0.54).