Ghana Equity Watch | 6 Aug 2015: Mixed reactions on Ghana Stock Exchange, market cap US$352 up and indices down

Accra, Ghana (Capital Markets in Africa):- The Ghanaian Stock Exchange (GSE) ended in mixed feelings at the end of Thursday’s trading session. The market capitalization rose by GHS 1,294 million to close at GHS 64,077 million relative to market capitalization of GHS 62,784 million recorded at previous trading session.

On the contrary, the benchmark composite index lost 4.29 points or 0.20 percent to close the day at 2,175.63 points, representing a year- to- date performance 0f -3.78 percent. The financial Index also fell by 8.86 points or 0.40 percent to trade at 2,205.38 points with a year-to-date return of -1.70 percent.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume was 120,232 (a rise of about 151.69 percent from previous trading session total volume of 47,700 shares) and total traded value was GHS 317,700 (an increase of about 57.58 percent compared to previous trading session value of GHS 201,615).  In term of the most actively traded stocks, Ghana Commercial Bank had 49,081 shares (almost 40.82 percent of the total volume) to value at GHS 203,591 (about 64.08 percent of the total value traded). Others were CAL Bank (recorded 43,950 shares at GHS 43,516), Ghana Oil Limited (recorded a volume of 11,582 shares valued at GHS 11,593), UT Bank (registered 5,300 shares valued at GHS 795) and Total Petroleum Ghana (traded 5,000 shares with total value of GHS 26,750). The top five most actively traded stocks by volume accounted for almost 96 percent of the total volume and about 90 percent of the total value traded.

Looking at the price movers and shakers, out of the 13 traded securities via 62 transactions, two gainers and four laggards were recorded, so the market breath/sentiment ends negative. The  Ghana Oil Limited added GHS 0.03 or 0.90 percent to end at GHS 1.61 and Total Petroleum Ghana closed at GHS 5.35 after the price move d by GHS 0.05 or 0.94 percent. Conversely, PZ Cussons Ghana dropped to GHS 0.35 from GHS 0.36 resulting to 2.78 percent drops and Ghana Commercial Bank plunged by 1.91 percent to end at GHS 4.15. Other losers were CAL Bank also went down by 1.00 percent to end at GHS 0.99 and Standard Chartered Bank Ghana tumbled by 0.74 percent to settle at GHS 18.80.

On the foreign exchange market front, the Ghanaian Cedi continued to drop against major trading currencies. The Cedi traded against the US dollar at GHS 3.6757 by depreciating by 3.28 percent and traded at GHS 3.9963 against the Euro by falling by 2.54 percent. Likewise, the Cedi lost value against British pound and Swiss franc by trading at GHS 5.7323 and GHS 3.7460 by losing 3.26 percent and 2.04 percent respectively. Similarly, the Ghanaian currency dropped by 2.46 percent to close at GHS 0.2870 against South Africa rand.