Ghana Equity Watch | 22 July 2015: Ghanaian equity markets continued walking toward the south pole, market give up US$82 million in market cap

Accra, Ghana (Capital Markets in Africa):- The Ghanaian equity markets continued walking toward the south pole. The benchmark composite index sagged by 23.48 points or 1.03 percent to close the day at 2,251.14 points, representing a year- to- date performance 0f -0.44 percent. Likewise, the financial Index tumbled by 21.15 points or 0.92 percent to trade at 2,288.88 with a year-to-date return of 2.02 percent.

The market capitalization also dropped by GHS 267 million to close at GHS 63,728 million relative to GHS 63,995 recorded at previous trading session.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume was 414,579  (a rise of about 67.86 percent from yesterday’s total volume of 246,983 shares) and total traded value was GHS 86,986 (a reduction of about 22.59 percent compared with previous trading session value of GHS 70,957). ALUWORKS Ghana had 220,000  shares (almost 53.07 percent of the total volume) to value at GHS 13,200 (about 15.17 percent of the total value traded). Other most actively traded stocks were Cocoa Processing Ghana (recorded 100,000 shares at GHS 2,000), Ecobank Transnational Bank (recorded a volume of 49,400 shares valued at GHS 16,108), Produce Buying Company (registered 12,700 shares valued at GHS 1,397) and SIC Insurance (traded 11,000 shares with total value of GHS 1,650). The top five most actively traded stocks by volume accounted for almost 40 percent of the total volume and about 51 percent of the total value traded.

Looking at the price movers and shakers, out of the 19 traded securities via 75 transactions, one gainer and seven losers were recorded, so the market breath/sentiment ends negative. Ghana Oil increased to GHS 1.51 by adding GHS 0.01 or 0.67 percent. The losers were Ecobank Transnational Bank went down by 2.94 percent to end at GHS 0.33, Ecobank Ghana ended at GHS 8.01 after losing 2.32 percent or GHS 0.19  and Ghana Commercial Bank dropped to  GHS 4.60 from GHS 4.70 resulting to 2.13  percent drops.  Unilever Ghana tumbled by 3.05 percent or GHS 0.23 to conclude at GHS 7.30 and Benso Oil Palm Ghana ended at GHS 4.60 after plunging by 0.7 percent or GHS 0.03.

On the foreign exchange market front, the Ghanaian Cedi retracted against major trading currencies. The Cedi traded against the US dollar at GHS 3.2660 by depreciating by 0.92 percent and traded at GHS 3.5695 against the Euro by falling by 1.03 percent. The Cedi also lost value against British pound and Swiss franc by setting at GHS 5.0807 and GHS 3.4065 by