The bears made an emphatic claim to the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) by causing the index to close the week on a negative as market return fell 0.51 points, representing a decline of 0.02 percent.

As a result of the bearish run of activities witnessed in the financial sector stocks namely, Standard Chartered Bank, the market collectively lost GH¢100 million.

The trading session ended with 18 GSE listed equities participating in trading, ending with only one gainer, namely Benso Oil Palm Plantation, with 1.25% share price appreciation and also one loser, namely Standard Chartered Bank (-0.3%).

Benso Oil Palm Plantation closed the week (Friday, September 16, 2022) at GH¢6.48 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording 8 pesewas gain over its previous closing price of GHS6.40.

However, the loss by Standard Chartered Bank was what detected the tempo of the market. Standard Chartered Bank Limited (SCB) also closed the week trading at GH¢20.24 per share on the local bourse, recording a 6 pesewa drop from its previous closing price of GHS20.30.

Standard Chartered Bank is the 17th most traded stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange over the past three months (Jun 20 – Sep 16, 2022). SCB has traded a total volume of 73,928 shares valued at GHS 1.5 million over the period, with an average of 1,173 traded shares per session. A volume high of 23,382 was achieved on September 7, for the same period.

The loss, moreover, reflected in the decline in the financial index. The GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) decreased by 0.07% to 2,073.33 points, making it a week-on-week loss of 0.27 per cent. However, on month-to-month basis, the financial index gained 1.86 percent, and a year-to-date loss of 3.65 percent.

Trading Activities Decline

As a result of negative movement in prices, the level of trading activities was bearish throughout the week as there was more than 100 percent decline in the total value traded at the end of the week. Similarly, the total volume traded also declined considerably.

At the end of the weekday of trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange, a total of 80,144 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 475,073.61, were traded. Compared with the previous GSE trading day (Thursday, September 15), the data showed 43 percent decline in turnover.

Furthermore, the week closed with Benso Oil Palm Plantation ranking top among the five most traded securities by volume after it amassed 19,850 traded shares, followed by Standard Chartered Bank with 16,049 traded shares. Also, Ecobank Transnational recorded 13,821 traded shares and SIC Insurance Company secured 12,643 traded shares.

The market capitalization, which determines the worth and direction of the market, dropped from GHS 64.5 billion to GHS 64.4 billion.