The Ghanaian Stocks have swung wildly since the omicron variant of the coronavirus emerged, once again raising concerns about the pandemic’s potential to damage the global economy.

It’s the latest round of market turbulence since the outbreak of COVID-19 roughly two years ago. The Omicron Variant is repeatedly tilting the Ghana Stock Market into the red zone territory as investors grapple with the uncertainty of the Omicron variant which is said to spread faster than the earlier variants discovered.

Wednesday’s outing saw the market trading mixed. In the aggregate, 12 GSE equities participated in trading, ending with three losers and only one gainer, namely SIC Insurance Company, while others traded flat. SIC Insurance ended the session with 14.29 percent share price appreciation. SIC closed its trading day (Wednesday, December 8, 2021) at GH¢0.08 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording a one pesewa gain over its previous closing price of GH¢0.07.

On the losing side, Ecobank Ghana (EGH) came out with an end-of-day price depreciation of 1.41 percent. EGH ended its trading day at GH¢7.69 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording a GH¢0.11 drop from its previous closing price of GH¢7.80.

MTN Ghana extended its losing streak while it ended another trading session in disappointment. MTN Ghana closed its trading day at GH¢1.15 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording a 0.9 percent drop from its previous closing price of GH¢1.16.

It was followed by Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) with 0.25 percent share price depreciation. SCB also ended its trading day at GH¢20.30 per share on the local bourse, recording a GH¢0.05 drop from its previous closing price of GH¢20.35.

The Impact of Wednesday’s Loss on the Indices

The losses suffered has affected the performance of GSE market indices. The benchmark GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI) dropped by 15.59 (-0.55%) points to close at 2,803.00 points. This consequently led to a week on week loss of 2.22 percent and a cumulative monthly loss of 4.62 percent. Nonetheless, it led to a year-to-date gain of 16.8 percent.

Similarly, the loss in the financial sector counters such as: Ecobank Ghana (EGH) and Standard Chartered Bank pushed the GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) southward by 0.33 percent to settle at 2,082.22 points. This led to a 1-week loss of 0.44 percent and a 4-week loss of 0.02 percent, but a year-to-date gain of 16.8 percent.

At the end of Wednesday’s trading session on the Accra bourse, a total of 162,916 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 236,511.83, changed hands.

MTN Ghana remains the most traded stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange. MTN Ghana recorded the highest volume of 65,126 traded shares, followed by Ghana Oil Company (47,606), CAL Bank (23,701) and Societe Generale Ghana (14,933).

The market capitalization also suffered another setback at the end of the session. The market capitalization again declined by GH¢200 million. The current market capitalization of the Ghana Stock Exchange is GH¢ 63.8 billion.

In the intervening time, the Ghana stock market has often been a barometer for the path of the pandemic, tumbling after new variants, and rising on advancements of vaccinations and new treatments.