Ghana Equity Watch | 21 July 2015: Investors lost GHS 58 million and composite index slumped by 15.78 points or 0.69 percent

Accra, Ghana (Capital Markets in Africa):- Ghana benchmark composite index slumped by 15.78 points or 0.69 percent to end the day at 2,274.62, its year- to- date performance reduces to 0.60 percent. At the same time, the financial Index tumbled by 21.84 points or 0.94 percent to trade at 2,310.03 with a year-to-date return of 2.96 percent. The market capitalization also dropped by GHS 58 million to close at GHS 63,995 million relative to GHS 64,708.90 recorded at previous trading session.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume was 246,983  (a rise of about 209.17 percent from yesterday’s total volume of 79,886 shares) and total traded value was GHS 70,957 (a reduction of about 127,887 percent compared with previous trading session value of GHS 105,006). ALUWORKS Ghana had 191,100  shares (almost 77.37 percent of the total volume) to value at GHS 11,466 (about 16.16 percent of the total value traded). Other most actively traded stocks were UT Bank Ghana (recorded 25,820 shares at GHS 4,389), Ghana Oil (recorded a volume of 10,100 shares valued at GHS 15,173), Trust Bank Limited (registered 8,000 shares valued at GHS 2,800) and Societe Generale (traded 2,900 shares with total value of GHS 2,666). The top five most actively traded stocks by volume accounted for almost 96 percent of the total volume and about 51 percent of the total value traded.

Looking at the price movers and shakers, among the 20 traded stocks in 69 transactions, four losers were recorded, so the market breath/sentiment ends negative. The losers were SIC Insurance fell by 11.76 percent to end at GHS 0.15, Ghana Commercial Bank with a drop of GHS 0.03 or 0.63 percent to end at GHS 4.73 and Standard Chartered Bank tumbled by 0.82 percent or GHS 0.16 to conclude at GHS 19.40. Likewise, Ecobank Ghana ended at GHS 8.20 after losing 2.26 percent.

On the foreign exchange market front, the Ghanaian Cedi appreciated against major trading currencies. The Cedi traded against the US dollar at GHS 3.236 by adding 0.57 percent and traded at GHS 3.5326 against the Euro by advancing 0.36 percent . The Cedi also appreciated against British pound and Swiss franc by setting at GHS 5.0571 and GHS 3.3684 by surging by 0.36 percent and 1.02 percent respectively. The local currency appreciated by 0.36 percent to close at GHS 0.2620 against South Africa rand.