Following a flurry of trading activities which characterized the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) since the beginning of the month of October, including a number of all-time high gains, a dip in performance of major stocks this week have seen trading on the market fall for three continuous days.

The market saw a quiet opening on the expected lines and traded flat in a narrow range. Out of nine equities that participated in Wednesday’s (October 20) trading, all failed to break from the flat base All these major stocks closed without a gain or a loss. This means that the stock prices of these equities neither increased nor decreased. while the trading activity declined yet again by 89 per cent.

At the end of Wednesday’s trading session on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), a total of 37,693 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 42,433.00, were traded. Compared with the previous GSE trading day (Tuesday, October 19), Wednesday’s data show 89% decline in volume.

On the volume front, CAL Bank led the charge, toppling MTN Ghana, which led the trading activity in the last two previous days. CAL Bank recorded the highest volume of 21,853 traded shares. This was followed by MTN Ghana with 7,493 shares that changed hands. On the other hand, Ecobank Transnational secured 3,743 traded shares while GCB Bank completed the top movers list with 1,625 traded shares.

GSE Composite Index

With regards to 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 2,848.01. This represents a cumulative seven days gain of 0.07 percent and a monthly gain of 1.19 percent, and an overall year-to-date gain of 46.68 percent.

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 2,070.00 points, also making it a weekly gain of 0.37 percent and a month-on-month gain of 3.77 percent, and a year-to-date gain of 16.11 percent.

Market Capitalization

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¢64.1 billion.

However, Wednesday’s performance beat all experts’ predictions. On the back of previous performances, expects predicted that the market will see a major lift in it’s trading activities. On the contrary, the market declined further.

Pattern analysis shows that the Relative Strength Index (RSI) on the daily chart remained neutral as it did not show any divergence against the price.

Additionally, analysts observe that the market could be gearing up towards a take off point as demand for bargain stocks increased.

In a sharp contrast, another analyst also predicted that the market is heading into a volatile period in which there could be a deeper pullback.