Ghana Equity Markets | 15 Sep 2015: Bearish mood persists on the Ghana Stock Exchange equity markets …

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 244 million (about US$64.5 million) to close at GHS 62,526 million relative to market capitalization of GHS 62,770 recorded at previous trading session.

The benchmark composite index sagged by 0.37 percent to close the day at 2,073.47 points, representing a year-to-date performance 0f -8.29 percent. The financial Index slumped by 0.45 percent to trade at 2,028.21 with a year-to-date return of -9.60 percent.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume was 359,023 (a fall of about 13.64 percent from previous trading session total volume of 415,742 shares) and total traded value was GHS 624,161 (a decreased of about 27.48 percent compared with previous trading session value of GHS 860,661). CAL Bank recorded 232,185 shares (almost 64.67 percent of the total volume) to value at GHS 196,925 (about 31.55 percent of the total value traded). Other most actively traded stocks were Fan Milk Ghana (recorded 57,052 shares at GHS 382,245), UT Bank Ghana (recorded a volume of 28,000 shares valued at GHS 3,080), SIC Insurance (registered 26,980 shares valued at GHS 3,494) and Ghana Commercial Bank (traded 5,459 shares with total value of GHS 21,627). The top five most actively traded stocks by volume accounted for almost 97 percent of the total volume and about 97 percent of the total value traded.

Looking at the price movers and shakers, out of the 17 traded securities via 134 transactions, two gainers and four losers were recorded, so the market breath/sentiment ended negative. Fan Milk rose to GHS 6.70 by adding GHS 0.16 or 2.45 percent and CAL Bank Ghana surged to GHS 0.85 from GHS 0.82 by gaining 3.66 percent. Whereas, Ghana Oil went down by 5.88 percent to end at GHS 1.60, Ghana Commercial Bank plunged by 1.00 percent to stop at GHS 3.96, Ecobank Transnational Incorporation Togo  plunged by 3.23 percent to trade at GHS 0.30 and Standard Chartered Ghana sagged by 0.06 percent at GHS 16.24.

On the foreign exchange market front, the Ghanaian Cedi continued to drop against major trading currencies. The Cedi traded against the US dollar at GHS 3.7861 after falling by 1.61 percent and traded at GHS 4.2772 against the Euro by falling by 1.65 percent. The Cedi depreciated against Swiss franc to settle at GHS 3.8980 by falling 2.03 percent. Ghanaian currency dropped by 1.45 percent to close at GHS 5.8257 and lost 2.02 percent to end at GHS 0.2791 against British pound and South Africa rand respectively.