After a prior advance on Friday July 23, blue chip stocks traded flat as activity declines a modest amount on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to start the new week after close of session on July 26, 2021.

According to market report, eight GSE equities participated in trading. All the major blue chip stocks that participated in Monday’s market closed the trading session without a gain or a loss. This means that the stock prices of these equities have neither increased nor decreased.

Additionally, trading activity declined considerably as a result of lacklustre performance of these stocks. At the end of the first weekday of trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), a total of 18,049 shares changed hands, corresponding to a market value of GHc 50,670.05.

Comparatively, this is a decline on the previous trading session. A total of 1,623,736 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHc 2,100,749.99 was traded on Friday’s trading session.

Market Performance
However, despite the decline in stock market performance, the banking sector and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) stocks led the market with MTN Ghana again recording the highest volume of shares traded.

MTN Ghana closed the session as a leader with the highest volume of 10,620 traded shares. This was followed by Cocoa Processing Company with 2,000 traded shares. CAL Bank and GCB Bank Limited followed in that order with 1,862 shares and 1,500 shares traded respectively.

Market Indices

Nonetheless, regarding the performance of GSE market indices, the benchmark GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI) did not see any change, closing at the same mark as it opened at 2,650.92 points. Meanwhile, this represents a 1-week gain of 0.1 percent and a 4-week gain of 0.28 percent. Moreover, It also represent an overall year-to-date gain of 36.53%.

Similarly, the GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) which constitutes only listed stocks from the financial sector including banking and insurance sector stocks, also maintained its value at 1,890.61 points, making it a 4-week gain of 1.03 percent, and a year-to-date gain of 6.05 percent.

Furthermore, the market capitalization which captures the total market value of all outstanding shares hence determining the worth of various companies listed on the local bourse also remained at GH¢61.5 billion.

This decline is witnessed on the back of the President of Ghana’s address to the nation on the new strain of the coronavirus – delta variant. Investors are however juggling concerns about new COVID-19 cases rebounding and hitting the country hard as the delta variant is believed to be super spreader and more potent.

Meanwhile, some strategists see the market heading into a volatile period in which there could be a deeper pullback.

However, analysts predict that there is going to be a rebound in stock market activity as the week begins, coupled with an improvement in investor confidence.

While it may seem like the stock market is going nowhere for weeks, it may be quietly winding itself up for a big climb.