Please see below for commentary on the Foreign Exchange (FX) market with data for the week-ended May 28, 2021. The table following the commentary shows Spot FX weekly turnover for trades between banks (FMDQ Dealing Member (Banks) [DMBs]/Authorised Dealers) and their clients for the week ended May 21 & 28, 2021.

In the FX Spot, Forwards and Futures markets, the total turnover for the week-ended May 28, 2021, was

$1,250.97 million, representing an increase of 0.72% ($8.97 million) from the $1,242.00 million reported for the week-ended May 21, 2021. The week-on-week (WoW) increase in turnover was driven by the 57.35% ($128.13 million) increase in FX Derivatives turnover

The WoW increase in FX Derivatives turnover was driven by the increase of 299.81% ($142.74 million) in FX Futures turnover, resulting in an increase in FX Derivatives’ contribution to total FX market turnover, by 14.22 Percentage Points to 28.10% from 13.88% recorded in the previous week. (See Table 1 below)

Table 1: Weekly FX Turnover Analysis ($’million)

In the Investors’ & Exporters’ (I&E) FX Window, the total value of trades for the week-ended May 28, 2021, was $899.42 million, representing a decrease of 11.70% ($119.17 million) from $1,018.59 million traded in the week-ended May 21, 2021 

For the week-ended May 28, 2021, the weekly average Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) rate depreciated, losing $/?0.07 to close at $/?410.91 when compared to $/?410.84 recorded in the previous week-ended May 21, 2021 

In the Bureau-de-Change (BDC) market, the Naira fell against the United State (US) Dollars by $/?7.00 to close the week-ended May 28, 2021, at $/?490.00, representing a 1.45% depreciation when compared to $/?483.00 recorded in the previous week, resulting in a spread of $/?79.09 between the BDC rate and the weekly average NAFEX rate

In the FX Futures market, $190.35 million worth of FX Futures contracts were traded in twenty-two (22) deals, representing a w-o-w increase of 299.81% ($142.74 million) when compared to $47.61 million traded in five (5) deals recorded in the week-ended May 21, 2021