Nigeria's naira shed 0.76 percent on Friday to close at a record low against the greenback, despite the central bank intervening for a fifth day with dollar sales to prop up the currency, dealers said. The unit closed at 177.45 naira to the dollar, weaker than Thursday's close of 176.10 naira. It had initially weakened to 177.12 naira, prompting the central bank to ask 21 commercial lenders to bid for $2 million apiece.
The bank has been selling $150 million to $200 million in each intervention, depleting its foreign reserves, dealers said. "The demand (for dollars) out there is quite serious ... The market is absorbing all central bank intervention and (the naira is) still depreciating," one dealer said.
"We had FDI (foreign portfolio investments) inflows in the past which has dried up." Foreign investors have increased the pace of outflows from Nigerian assets since August, selling out of the equity and debt markets as the price of Brent crude, the benchmark against which Nigeria's oil is sold, dropped. Investors pulled out 101.2 billion naira ($583.6 million) from the stock market in October.