Ghana Equity Markets | 22 Sep 2015: Ghana Equity Markets Open lower, Benchmark Index 0.49% lower ..

Accra, Ghana Capital Markets in Africa —  On Tuesday, the first trading day of the at the Ghana Stock Exchange ended in negative zone compared to last Friday trading session. The equities market capitalization lost GHS 54 million (about US$14 million) to close at GHS 62,340.15 million relative to market capitalization of GHS 62,394.15 recorded at previous trading session.

The benchmark composite index down by 0.49 percent or 9.81 points to close the day at 2,039.23 points, representing a year-to-date performance 0f -9.81 percent. The financial Index slumped by 0.72 percent or 14.37 points to trade at 1,992.26 with a year-to-date return of -11.20 percent.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume was 823,168 (a rise of about 32.79 percent from previous trading session total volume of 619,920 shares) and total traded value was GHS 2.071 million (an increase of about 354.48 percent compared with previous trading session value of GHS 455,642). Enterprise Group recorded 375,800 shares (almost 45.64percent of the total volume) to value at GHS 826,760 (about 39.92 percent of the total value traded). Other most actively traded stocks were Ghana Commercial Bank (recorded 303,106 shares at GHS 1,121,788), SIC Insurance (recorded a volume of 122,167 shares valued at GHS 14,714), Trust Bank Ghana (registered 6,600 shares valued at GHS 2,310) and Standard Chartered Bank (traded 4,851 shares with total value of GHS 78,828). The top five most actively traded stocks by volume accounted for almost 99 percent of the total volume and about 99 percent of the total value traded.

Looking at the price movers and shakers, out of the 15 traded securities via 120 transactions, two gainers and three losers were recorded, so the market breath/sentiment ended negative. Standard Chartered Bank surged to GHS 16.25 by adding GHS 0.01 or 0.06 percent and Aluworks Ghana soared to GHS 0.05 from GHS 0.04 by gaining 25.00 percent. Whereas, Ghana Commercial Bank sagged by 4.88 percent to end at GHS 3.70, CAL Bank declined by 1.18 percent to stop at GHS 0.84 and SIC Insurance tumbled by 7.69 percent at GHS 0.12.

On the foreign exchange market front, the Ghanaian Cedi depreciated against major trading currencies. The Cedi traded against the US dollar at GHS 3.8494 after appreciated by  0.24 percent and traded at GHS 4.2762 against the Euro after falling by 0.29 percent. The Cedi depreciated against Swiss franc to settle at GHS 4.0059 after sagging by 0.87 percent. Ghanaian currency dropped by 0.20 percent to close at GHS 5.9964 and depreciated 0.72 percent to end at GHS 0.2905 against British pound and South Africa rand respectively.