Ghana Equity Markets | 3 Sep 2015: GSE equity markets stay on downtrends …

Accra, Ghana Capital Markets in Africa —  Ghana equity markets maintained the bearish mood for six successive trading session, so the equities market capitalization shred off GHS 44 million (about US$8 million)  to close at GHS 62,680 million relative to market capitalization of GHS 62,724 recorded at previous trading session.

The benchmark composite index went down by 8.12 points or 0.39 percent to close the day at 2,101.45 points, representing a year-to-date performance 0f -7.06 percent. The financial Index sagged by 10.62 points or 0.51 percent to trade at 2,074.84 with a year-to-date return of -7.52 percent.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume was 1,014,314  (about 179.47 percent rise from yesterday’s total volume of 362,938 shares) and total traded value was GHS 252,381 (an  increase of about 150,504 percent compared with previous trading session value of GHS 55,610). SIC Insurance had 550,000 shares (almost 54.22 percent of the total volume) to value at GHS 82,300 million (about 32.61 percent of the total value traded). Other most actively traded stocks were Ecobank Transnational Incorporation Togo (recorded 157,708 shares at GHS 47,312), Cocoa Processing (recorded a volume of 101,700 shares valued at GHS 2,034), UT Bank (registered 101,700 shares valued at GHS 10,270) and Societe Generale (traded 36,300 shares with total value of GHS 31,587). The top five most actively traded stocks by volume accounted for almost 93 percent of the total volume and about 70 percent of the total value traded.

Looking at the price movers and shakers, out of the 17 traded securities via 126 transactions, one gainers and five losers were recorded, so the market breath/sentiment ends negative. Starwin Products surged to GHS 0.04 after surging by GHS 0.01 or 33.33 percent. However, Ecobank Ghana plunged by 0.50 percent to trade at GHS 8.00 and Societe Generale stepped down to GHS 0.87 from GHS 0.91 by losing 3.33 percent.  CAL Bank dropped to  GHS 0.88 from GHS 0.91 resulting to 3.30  percent drops, Enterprise Group went down by 0.91 percent to end at GHS 2.18 and Ghana Oil tumbled by 1.07 percent to settle at GHS 1.85.

On the foreign exchange market front, the Ghanaian Cedi sustained its gains against major trading currencies. The Cedi traded against the US dollar at GHS 3.7412 by gaining 1.03 percent and traded at GHS 4.2071 against the Euro after surging by 1.11 percent. The Cedi also appreciated against British pound and Swiss franc by trading at GHS 5.7288 and GHS 3.8605 by adding 1.19 percent and 1.60 percent respectively. Similarly, the Ghanaian currency increased by 1.62 percent to close at GHS 0.2776 against South Africa rand.