By Favour Agbi, with Agency Report
LAGOS — The naira, yesterday, firmed slightly against the U.S dollar on the interbank market after the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and some oil firms sold the dollar directly to lenders to help lift the local currency, dealers said.

The naira closed at 157.10 to the dollar on the interbank market, recovering from the N158.18 it touched after the CBN announced its auction results, where it had failed to meet dollar demand.

A separate intervention by the bank after the auction helped correct for this lack of dollar supply, as the CBN sold an undisclosed amount of dollars to some lenders.

The unit closed at N157.80, Tuesday.

At the auction, the CBN sold $180 million at N150.73 to the dollar, short of the $262.96 million demanded.

Dealers said Shell, Chevron and Agip sold a total of $150 million at the interbank as part of their month end dollar sales, which also helped spur a rebound in the naira.

The CBN also had to sell extra dollars onto the market on Tuesday, to firm up the currency which had initially weakend to N160.90, after having to sell $200 million at N150.25 to the dollar at Monday’s auction.

Another currency trader said the naira has been very volatile since the week, trading at around 156-160 levels, and that if more dollar sales do not come in either from the oil firms or central bank, current gains could lose steam.

“We expect the naira to weaken except when there is an intervention from the CBN or the oil firms,” one dealer said, adding that there would be only one auction next week owing to a bank holiday on Monday.

The CBN has been trying to maintain the naira within a band of plus/minus 3 percent around 150 naira to the dollar.

But Governor Lamido Sanusi had said last Monday that the bank would review its target band for the naira in the next few days, and depending on where the exchange rate settles may move its midpoint to 155/156 to the dollar.