ThinkBusiness Today - May 12th

TGIF. Whatever you are doing this weekend; I hope you enjoy it. As for me, I look forward to the two English premier league games on Sunday – two home wins will make it a great weekend.

E kaaro o, Ututu Oma, Barka da Safiya – Good morning, welcome to ThinkBusiness Nigeria.

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Markets

• The benchmark NGX All-Share Index (ASI) continues its relatively flat trajectory with a trimmed 47.82 (-0.09%) points to close at 52,161.24, representing a 1-week loss of 0.25%, a 4-week loss of 1.57%, but an overall year-to-date gain of 1.78%. Key traded stocks yesterday are GTCO (-2.44%), ACCESSCORP (-3.77%) and ZENITH (-2.05%).

• As the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to provide opportunity for broad based and alternative investment opportunities, it has approved the first commodities fund. It approved the N3 billion of 30 million units of the Marble Halal Commodities Fund, set up by Marble Capital Limited.

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Global Headlines

• The Bank of England yesterday followed the Federal Reserve early this week to raise its interest rates by 0.25% to reach 4.5%, highest since 2008. The Bank now thinks inflation is stickier than earlier thought. Also yesterday, US Unemployment claims rose by 6,000 to 245,250, the highest level since November 2021.

• Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter announced on Twitter (where else?) that the microblogging site will have a new CEO. The yet to be named CEO will resume in six weeks, he said. Tesla’s share went up by 2%, according to CNBC reports. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that “Linda Yaccarino, the chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCU, is in talks to be the CEO, according to people familiar with the matter”. Meanwhile, Bluesky, backed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorse had 628,000 mobile downloads in April, a 606% rise from March.

• Meanwhile, the banking crisis contagion resurfaced in the US market yesterday after two day calm. PacWest shares fell by about 23%. Unrelated to banking, Walt Disney shares also fell by 8% when it reported a fall in subscriber’s growth.

What I read this week

Contemporary Macroeconomic Issues in the Nigerian Economy: A book of readings

Edited by: Dr. Kingsley I. Obiora, Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

Let me say it from the start, this is a largely technical economic book, but devoid of serious technical terms for anyone interested in understanding the theoretical underpinnings of current monetary policy dynamics in Nigeria.

It provided the origins and contextual development of all the current monetary policy tools used by the Bank, how these tools permeate through the financial systems, how the feedback from the financial system and the economy feed into these instruments, and how (in)effective some of the instruments have been in meeting the objectives of monetary policies in the country.

A major takeaway for me is how the book demonstrated that and showed how monetary policy has evolved and still evolving in Nigeria. So, you can trace the pattern in the book of the effectiveness of various monetary instruments in delivering macroeconomic stability and growth.

Finally, you will find some very interesting studies whether frontier economies such as Nigeria responds in the same manner to some monetary policy variables as it does in many developed economies, such as yield curve.