Ghana Equity Markets | 20 Oct 2015: Ghana Stock Market Cap US$3 million down, indices marginally fall …

Accra, Ghana, Capital Markets in Africa — On Tuesday the Ghanaian Stock Exchange (GSE) equities closed with negative momentum, as a result the market capitalization fell by GHS 9.5 million to close at GHS 62,071 million compared to a market capitalization of GHS 62,080 recorded at the previous trading session.3

The benchmark composite index dropped 1.74 points or 0.09 percent to close the day at 1,988.91 points, representing a year-to-date performance 0f -12.03 percent. The financial Index also sagged by 1.58 points or 0.08 percent to trade at 1,917.99 points with a year-to-date return of -14.51 percent.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume was 110,057 (a fall of about 88.47 percent from the previous trading session total volume of 954,735 shares) and total traded value was GHS 511,171 (a fall of about 90.75 percent compared with the previous trading session value of GHS 5.527 million). Guinness Ghana recorded 45,400 shares (almost 43 percent of the total volume) to value at GHS 90,800 (about 18.53 percent of the total value traded). Other most actively traded stocks were Ecobank Ghana (recorded 20,800 shares at GHS 145,630), Ghana Oil (recorded a volume of 20,336 shares valued at GHS 27,047), Standard Chartered Bank (registered 12,900 shares valued at GHS 212,148) and SIC Insurance (traded 3,000 shares with total value of GHS 390). The top five most actively traded stocks by volume accounted for almost 96 percent of the total volume and about 97 percent of the total value traded.

Looking at the price movers and shakers, out of the 13 traded securities via 96 transactions, two gainers and two losers were recorded, so the market breath/sentiment ended in a positive. Standard Chartered Bank Ghana rose to GHS 16.35 by adding GHS 0.05 or 0.31 percent. Unilever Ghana surged to GHS 7.84 from GHS 7.827 by gaining 0.26 percent, but Ecobank Ghana went down by 0.71 percent to end at GHS 7.00 and Total Petroleum declined by 0.75 percent to end at GHS 5.32.

On the foreign exchange market front, the Ghanaian Cedi dropped against major trading currencies. The Cedi traded against the US dollar at GHS 3.8034 after dipping by 0.74 percent and traded at GHS 4.3067 against the Euro after dropping 0.74 percent. The Cedi also lost value against the Swiss Franc to settle at GHS 3.9767 by depreciating by 0.36 percent. Ghanaian currency dropped by 0.99 percent to close at GHS 5.8860 but by grew by 0.40 percent to end at GHS 0.2867 against British pound and South Africa rand respectively.