Ghana Equity Markets | 14 Sep 2015: Ghana Stock Exchange equity markets ends lower …

Accra, Ghana Capital Markets in Africa —  Ghana Stock Exchange equity trading opened the week on a negative note and the equities market capitalization lost GHS 162 million (about US$43.5 million) to close at GHS 62,770 million relative to market capitalization of GHS 62,608 recorded at previous trading session.

The benchmark composite index sagged by 0.35 percent to close the day at 2,081.18 points, representing a year-to-date performance 0f -7.95 percent. The financial Index slumped by 0.56 percent to trade at 2,037.30 with a year-to-date return of -9.20 percent.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume was 415,742 (an increase of about 59.91 percent from previous trading session total volume of 259,981 shares) and total traded value was GHS 860,661 (an increase of about 51.26 percent compared with previous trading session value of GHS 568,978). Societe Generale recorded 138,400 shares (almost 33.29 percent of the total volume) to value at GHS 110,720 (about 12,86 percent of the total value traded). Other most actively traded stocks were CAL Bank Ghana (recorded 120,392 shares at GHS 98,723), Ecobank Transnational Incorporation Togo (recorded a volume of 33,474 shares valued at GHS 10,318), Standard Chartered (registered 33,060 shares valued at GHS 537,225) and UT Bank Ghana (traded 24,100 shares with total value of GHS 2,651). The top five most actively traded stocks by volume accounted for almost 84 percent of the total volume and about 88 percent of the total value traded.

Looking at the price movers and shakers, out of the 16 traded securities via 173 transactions, five gainers and four losers were recorded, so the market breath/sentiment ended negative. Fan Milk rose to GHS 6.54 by adding GHS 0.02 or 0.31 percent and Unilever Ghana surged to GHS 7.60 from GHS 7.54 by gaining 0.80 percent. Ecobank Transnational Incorporation Togo surged by 3.33 percent to end at GHS 0.31, Trust Bank soared by 9.37 percent to trade at GHS 0.35 and CAL Bank Ghana advanced by 1.23 percent to close at GHS 0.82. Whereas, Ghana Commercial Bank went down by 0.50 percent to end at GHS 4.00, Ecobank Ghana drifted down by 3.23 percent to stop at GHS 7.91, Societe Generale Ghana plunged by 8.05 percent to trade at GHS 0.80 and Standard Chartered Ghana sagged by 2.81 percent at GHS 16.25.

On the foreign exchange market front, the Ghanaian Cedi continued to drop against major trading currencies. The Cedi traded flat against the US dollar at GHS 3.7252 and traded at GHS 4.2067 against the Euro by falling by 0.74 percent. The Cedi depreciated against Swiss franc to settle at GHS 3.8190 by falling 0.02 percent. Ghanaian currency dropped by 0.12 percent to close at GHS 5.7413 and lost 0.86 percent to end at GHS 0.2735 against British pound and South Africa rand respectively.