The Naira on Wednesday remained stable at the parallel market, exchanging at N321 to the dollar amidst contraction in the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for April.
The currency of the largest economy in Africa had been exchanging for N321 to the dollar for about four days running.
The Naira also traded at N467 and N365 to the Pound Sterling and Euro respectively.
Meanwhile, the nation’s currency had maintained N197 to the dollar at the official Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rate.
Traders at the market expressed optimism that the passage of the 2016 budget may affect the market positively.
They, however, urged the CBN to urgently halt the activities of currency speculators, adding that their actions were affecting the market negatively.
The PMI statistics is used as a health check for the nation’s manufacturing sector for a particular month.
According to a composite PMI reading, above 50 per cent indicates that the manufacturing/non-manufacturing economy is generally expanding as 50 per cent indicates no change.
A PMI of below 50 per cent indicates that it is generally declining.
A data obtained from the CBN, showed that manufacturing PMI dropped to 43.7 per cent in April, compared to 45.9 per cent in the preceding month.
The CBN said that the data revealed that the manufacturing sector declined at a faster rate during the review period.
