Ghana Equity Markets | 2 Sep 2015: Ghana equities witness massive dips, GSE Composite index 1.99%, investors lose GHS 1,48 milliion

Accra, Ghana (Capital Markets in Africa):-  Ghana equity continues on the downward path for five successive trading session at the end of today’s trading session. The equities market capitalization shred off GHS 1,048 million (about US$277 million)  to close at GHS 62,724 million relative to market capitalization of GHS 63,772 recorded at previous trading session.

The benchmark composite index massively fell by 42.79 points or 1.99 percent to close the day at 2,109.57 points, representing a year-to-date performance 0f -6.70 percent. The financial Index also sagged by 51.35 points or 2.40 percent to trade at 2,085.46 with a year-to-date return of -7.05 percent.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume was 362,938  (about 392 percent rise from yesterday’s total volume of 73,794 shares) and total traded value was GHS 150,504 (an  increase of about 170.64 percent compared with previous trading session value of GHS 55,610). UT Bank had 294,240 shares (almost 81.07 percent of the total volume) to value at GHS 29,442 million (about 19.57 percent of the total value traded). Other most actively traded stocks were Guinness Ghana (recorded 20,200 shares at GHS 44,400), CAL Bank (recorded a volume of 19,590 shares valued at GHS 17,827), Ghana Commercial Bank (registered 12,030 shares valued at GHS 48,240) and SIC Insurance (traded 7,300 shares with total value of GHS 1,000). The top five most actively traded stocks by volume accounted for almost 97 percent of the total volume and about 94 percent of the total value traded.

Looking at the price movers and shakers, out of the 14 traded securities via 97 transactions, one gainers and six losers were recorded, so the market breath/sentiment ends negative. Fan Milk Ghana surged to GHS 5.99 after surging by GHS 0.01 or 0.17 percent. However, Ecobank Transnational Incorporation plunged by 11.76 percent to trade at GHS 0.30 and Guinness Ghana stepped down to GHS 2.20 from GHS 2.34 by losing 5.98 percent.  The losers were Ghana Oil dropped to  GHS 1.87 from GHS 1.88 resulting to 0.53  percent drops, Ghana Commercial Bank went down by 0.50 percent to end at GHS 4.01, CAL Bank tumbled by 4.21 percent to settle at GHS 0.91 and Standard Chartered Bank closed at GHS 16.79 with a reduction of 0.71 percent or GHS 0.12.

On the foreign exchange market front, the Ghanaian Cedi continued to appreciate against major trading currencies. The Cedi traded against the US dollar at GHS 3.7798 by gaining 3.79 percent and traded at GHS 4.2540 against the Euro after surging by 3.29 percent. The Cedi also appreciated against British pound and Swiss franc by trading at GHS 5.7871 and GHS 3.9224 by adding 3.95 percent and 3.33 percent respectively. Similarly, the Ghanaian currency increased  by 4.45 percent to close at GHS 0.2821 against South Africa rand.