Major stocks of the Ghana Stock Exchange traded flat to end the month of January which was characterized by a lot of volatility.

In the aggregate, 13 GSE equities participated in trading with all trading flat, as there were no gainers nor losers. This means that the market neither rose nor declined in price or valuation.

The market opened on a positive note amid the Monetary Policy Meeting (MPC) being held by the Bank of Ghana. However, it surrendered all gains amid volatility in the first half and ended on the flat line. The bank of Ghana eventually maintained the policy rate at 14.5% with investors taking a cue as the market wound down without any significant change to the market position in the previous trading session.

Market Performance

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 2,766.80 points, representing a 1-week loss of 0.81 percent. Moreover, this led to a month on month loss of 1.22 percent. The year-to-date also followed suit and declined by 22.54 points. This represents an overall year-to-date loss of 0.81 percent.

Similarly, the GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) also maintained its value at 2,131.93 points, making it a 1-week loss of 1.03 percent, a month on month loss of 0.93 percent, and a year-to-date loss of 0.93 percent.

According to the market report, at the end of the first weekday of trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), a total of 13,505 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 24,830.80, were traded.

Volume Leaders

Despite the major stocks trading flat, the banking sector and insurance stocks leading the market with SIC Insurance Company led the volume of traded shares.

SIC Insurance Company recorded the highest volume of 3,700 traded shares. This was followed by GCB Bank PLC with 2,151 traded shares. CAL Bank followed with 1,957 total volume of shares traded while Access Bank Ghana completed the list of top movers with 1,705 traded shares.

The current market capitalization of the Ghana Stock Exchange stands at GHS 63.6 billion.

However, Analysts predict that there is going to be a rebound in trading activity as the new month begins, coupled with an improvement in investor confidence; also, alongside a market valuation which may drive the demand for stocks across the telecommunication, banking, insurance and oil sectors.

As the demand for bargain stock increases, experts believe the Ghanaian stock market is likely to pick up this week.

That notwithstanding, other experts indicated that with the BoG holding policy rate at 14.5% and the subsequent prediction by the BoG governor that inflation will remain above the target in the near-term, there would be a lot of volatility as a result of profit taking investors.