MTN stocks fell on Tuesday in its first trading session in 2022, as weakness in the telecommunication shares persisted into the new year.
Investor sentiments dampened with MTN Ghana recording 4.5 percent share price depreciation.
The Scancom PLC closed its trading day (Tuesday, January 4, 2022) at GH¢1.06 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording a 5 pesewas drop from its previous closing price of GH¢1.11. MTN ended last year 2021 with a share price of GH¢1.11, and began the new year with same but has since lost 4.5 percent off that price valuation in the first outing of the year. MTN currently ranks 38th on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance.
Shareholders’ worries are compounded by the fact that MTN Ghana has lost 10 percent of the stock’s value from December 1, 2021 to date.
An Elevated Trading Activity
Nevertheless, MTN Ghana is the most traded stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange over the past three months (Oct 4, 2021 – Jan 4, 2022). MTNGH has traded a total volume of 85.3 million shares valued at GHS 99.7 million over the period, with an average of 1.35 million traded shares per session. A volume high of 19.6 million was achieved on January 4, for the same period.
At the end of Tuesday’s trading session on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), a total of 19,641,546 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 20,876,941.43, were traded.
In the aggregate, nine GSE equities participated in trading, ending with one loser, namely MTN Ghana.
Despite recording a slip in shares, MTN Ghana recorded a record breaking total volume of shares. It transacted the highest volume of 19.6 million shares on the day.
Stocks with higher volumes have more investors interested in buying or selling them. In the case of MTN Ghana, the price of a stock keeps depreciating in the midst of high trading volume. This means that more investors of MTN Ghana are selling their shares. Analyst pointed out that it could be because of the proposed e-levy which is expected to be implemented this year, that is putting pressure on investors to sell off their shares with the fear of the stock prices going down further.
MTN Ghana was joined by CAL Bank as the stocks with the most volume of shares traded on the first day. CAL Bank secured 22,881 traded shares, while SIC Insurance Company also managed to record 7,230 traded shares. GCB Bank completed the list of top movers with 371 traded shares.
Market Performance
Regarding the performance of GSE market indices, the benchmark GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI) plummeted by 58.72 points to close at 2,730.62 points, representing a decline of 2.11 percent. This led to a week on week loss of 2.78 percent, a further month on month loss of 3.96 percent, and an overall year-to-date loss of 2.11 percent.
On the other hands, the GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) maintained its value at 2,151.85 points, making a weekly gain of 0.77 percent, and a month on month gain of 2.89 percent.
The current market capitalization of the Ghana Stock Exchange stands at GH¢ 63.9 billion.
Investors are however, expectant that this new year will bring them good fortunes as the GSE begins the year with an increase in demand for bargain stocks.
