Major Ghanaian stocks closed higher on Wednesday, October 13, as concerns about slowing growth and worries about inflation lingers on.

Nonetheless, the gains chalked on Wednesday was not enough to lift the Ghana Stock Exchange above the red zone.

In the aggregate, 17 GSE equities participated in Wednesday’s trading, ending with three gainers and just one loser. Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) led the gainers with a share price appreciation closing at GHS 4.00 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording a 5.54% gain over its previous closing price of GHS3.79. However, Benso Oil Palm Plantation began the year with a share price of GHS2.00 and has since gained 100% on that price valuation, ranking it third on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance.

Next on the gainers’ list was Enterprise Group Limited (EGL) with a share price appreciation. EGL closed its trading day (Wednesday, October 13, 2021) at GHS2.50 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording a 4.2% gain over its previous closing price of GHS2.40.

CAL Bank completed the list with 1.35% gain in its share price. CAL Bank’s share price jumped from GHS0.74 to GHS0.75.

Nonetheless, the only equity that lost value on the day was MTN Ghana (-0.83%). Thus, suffering a consecutive loss in the process. MTN Ghana closed its trading day (Wednesday, October 13, 2021) at GHS1.20 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording a 0.8% drop from its previous closing price of GHS1.21. MTN began the year with a share price of GHS0.64 and has since gained 87.5% on that price valuation, ranking it fourth on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance.

Despite the recent losses, MTN Ghana is the most traded stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange over the past three months (Jul 14 – Oct 13, 2021). MTNGH has traded a total volume of 53.7 million shares valued at GHS 65.8 million over the period, with an average of 852,512 traded shares per session. A volume high of 8.29 million was achieved on September 27, and lowest of 1,330 on September 17, for the same period.

Trade by Volume

CAL Bank recorded the highest volume of 101,999 traded shares, followed by MTN Ghana (92,608), Ecobank Transnational (22,207) and Ghana Oil Company (14,666).

At the end of Wednesday’s trading session on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), a total of 262,159 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 378,628.19, were traded. Compared with the previous GSE trading day (Tuesday, October 12), Wednesday’s data show 18% decline in volume and 58% decline in turnover.

According to analysts, the recent surge in inflation and exchange rate have effect on the performance of the stocks.

In a data released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), September recorded a year-on-year inflation rate of 10.6 percent. This is 0.9 percentage points higher than the rate of 9.7 percent recorded in August 2021.

Market Indices

Concerning the performance of GSE market indices, the benchmark GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI) shed 8.81 points (-0.31%) to close at 2,845.93 points, representing a 1-week loss of 1.01%, a 4-week gain of 2.06%, and an overall year-to-date gain of 46.58%.

The GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI), on the other hand, increased by 0.2% to reach 2,066.41 points. Thus, making it a 1-week gain of 0.69%, a 4-week gain of 4.34%, and a year-to-date gain of 15.91%.

The current market capitalization of the Ghana Stock Exchange declined by GHS100 million to settle at GHS 64.1 billion. It previously stood at GHS 64.2 billion.