Ghana Market Watch | June 16th 2015: Ghana equity markets indices and market capitalization tumble

Accra, Ghana (Capital Markets in Africa):- Ghana equity markets indices and market capitalization nose-dive at the end of today’s trading session. The benchmark composite index dropped 3.15 points (about 0.13 percent) to end the day at 2,360.66, bringing the year- to- date return to 4.41 percent. Equally, the financial Index plunged by 5.21 points or 0.22 percent to 2,414.09 with a year-to-date return of 7.60 percent. Alike, the market capitalization went down nearly GHS 17.14 million (-0.03percent relative to yesterday market cap of GHS 64,679.59) to settle at GHS 64,662.45 million.

From the market activity perspective, the total volume and total turnover were recorded at 1.646 million (an increase of about 462.02 percent from yesterday’s total volume of 292,951 shares) and GHS 3.937 million (a rise of almost 341 percent compared with previous trading section turnover of GHS 893,453). SOCIETE GENERALE Ghana (1.130 million  volume with a valued of GHS 1.187 million), Ghana Commercial Bank (158,515 shares traded at GHS 776,724),ECOBANK Ghana (recorded volume of 149,268 at GHS 1.361 million), ECOBANK Translational Incorporation Togo (volume of 139,590 at GHS 51,650) and Standard Chartered Bank Ghana  (27,715 volume traded at GHS 526,585) were the top five most actively traded stocks by volume and accounted for nearly 98 percent of the total volume and about 99 percent of the total market turnover.

Looking at the price movers, out of the 21 traded securities today there was3 gainers, 2 losers and 16 remained unchanged, so the market breath today end negative. The three gainers were PZ Cussons improved by 14.29 percent or GHS 0.04 with a closing price of GHS 0.32 STARWIN Products Limited Ghana surged by 33.33 percent or GHS 0.01 to end at GHS 0.04 and Ghana Oil accelerated by 0.70 percent or GHS 0.01 to end at GHS 1.44. However, the two losers were, Guinness Ghana tumbled by 1.25 percent or GHS 0.04 to conclude at GHS 3.15 and ECOBANK Ghana plunged by 0.76 percent to settle at GHS 9.12.

On the foreign exchange market, the Ghanaian Cedi closed stronger against the Swiss Franc today, however continued its losing trend against the other major trading currencies. The Ghanaian Cedi closed at GHS 4.47 to the Swiss Fran, representing a day’s appreciation of 0.55 percent. The US Dollar closed on a strong note, buoyed by strong US Job data. The Cedi fell to a session low of GHS 4.18 to the greenback, with a depreciation of 0.55 percent . While the Euro also traded higher against the Cedi, by appreciating by 0.33 percent against the Cedi. The British Pound outperformed the Cedi to closed at GHS6.51, resulted to an increase of 0.37 percent against the Cedi.