The Ghana Stock Exchange market tumbled in the week ending March 27, as selling pressures emanating from the COVID-19 fears took a toll on trading activities. In the week under review, the GSE saw most of trading activities ending in the red as market speculated a potential Government actions which could affect general economic activities in the bid to control the spread of the novel disease. At the closing bell, the GSE Composite Index thus dropped by 1.16 percent as it settled at 2,160.52 points, corresponding to a year-to-date loss of 4.28 percent. The GSE Financial Stocks Index also saw 1.82 percent declines to an index level of 1,925.60 points, reflecting a year-to-date loss of 4.66 percent. Total volume of shares which exchanged hands in the week under review stood at 218,630 valued at GH¢288.23 million. This represents 84.71 percent declines from the previous week’s outturn of 1.43 million shares. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Ltd dominated the activity chart with 30.31 percent share of the overall traded volume. Market capitalization, however, dropped by 0.34 percent on account of significant sell-off recorded on the bourse to GH¢55,995.00 million. Stock price movements At the pairing of the week’s opening and closing prices, no advancer was recorded. Seven equities, however, shed prices on the bourse. Ecobank Ghana Ltd was the worst performing stock, as it trimmed 36 pesewas of its opening price to trade at GH¢6.90 per share. Total Petroleum Ltd and Ghana Oil Company Ltd shed 10 pesewas and 8 pesewas to trade at GH¢2.90 and GH¢1.62 per share respectively. GCB Bank Ltd and Standard Chartered Bank Ltd had their share prices down by 7 pesewas and a pesewa to finish the week’s trade at GH¢4.69 and GH¢18.99 pesewas per share respectively. Other laggards were CAL Bank Ltd and Société Générale Ghana Ltd. Treasury securities The yield on short-dated securities also trimmed at the close of Friday, March 27, with yields on the 91-Day T-Bill witnessing a 11 basis points moderation from the previous week’s rate of 14.75 percent to 14.64 percent. Interest rate on the 182-Day T-Bill which is now going for 15.15 percent, also dropped by 3 basis points from the previous week’s rate of 15.18 percent. The 364-Day T-Bill also eased by 15 basis points to settle at 17.65 percent last Friday. The yields on the treasury notes and bonds were, however, unaltered as they were not allotted for the week’s auction. Government accepted a total of GH¢743.32 million worth of bids, out of the GH¢906.50 million bids tendered by investors at the week’s auction. The amount raised exceeded the week’s target of GH¢715.00 million, with the 91-Day T-Bills dominating Government’s purchase, constituting 67.04 percent. Government hopes to raise an amount of GH¢452.00 million through the issuance of the 91-Day and 182-Day T-Bills at the upcoming auction.
