Nigeria's cenbank sells dollars, but naira still down

LAGOS (Reuters) - The Nigeria's central bank sold a small amount of dollars to some lenders on Monday to calm the market and prop up the local currency value, but the naira weakened 0.21 percent on the day owing to strong demand from some end-users. Unit of Royal Dutch Shell sold an undisclosed amount of dollars to some lenders, while Eni sold $300,000. Traders said transactions remained sluggish since the central bank decreed that banks should not hold part of their assets in dollasr, and that dollars purchased on the interbank market can only be held for up to 48 hours. "The market is quiet, banks only buy dollars for the immediate needs of their customers ...but available dollars are not sufficient to meet customer purchases," another dealer said.