The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) general index dropped to lows unseen since last two months after shedding 0.24 percent on Thursday, September 22, 2022, while dropping below the 2,500 points.

Stock markets across the continent of Africa reflected the pessimistic view that there may be a possible escalation in the war in Ukraine after President Putin Ordered for partial mobilisation at a time when the rally of global interest rates and the soaring inflation continued to eat away at the value of money. The local bourse bourse suffered fresh losses on Thursday, with its benchmark tumbling to a new two-month low, with little hope of a swift recovery under the current conditions.

The benchmark GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI) pared 5.94 points to close at 2,498.96 points, representing a week-on-week loss of 0.06 percent. However, it recorded a month-to-month gain of 0.54 percent, but an overall year-to-date loss of 10.41 percent.

Similarly, the GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) also contracted by 0.35 percent to 2,075.11 points, representing a week-on-week gain of 0.02 percent, a 4-week gain of 1.98 percent, and a year-to-date loss of 3.57 percent.

In total 16 stocks participated in trading, one posted gains, 2 registered losses and 13 remained unchanged, thus traded flat.

Cal Bank ended the section with 8.11 percent share price appreciation. CAL closed the trading day at GHS0.80 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange, recording 6 pesewas gain over its previous closing price of GHS0.74.

However, CAL began the year with a share price of GHS0.87 but has since lost 8.05% off that price valuation, ranking it 28th on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance. That notwithstanding, this gain allay shareholders’ fears as it recorded 5% increase of CAL share price since August 24, which is fourth best on GSE.

CAL Bank is the second most traded stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange over the past three months (Jun 23 – Sep 22, 2022). CAL has traded a total volume of 3.15 million shares valued at GHS 2.36 million over the period, with an average of 50,009 traded shares per session. A volume high of 949,443 was achieved on September 13, for the same period.

Losers on the Day

The two laggards on the day were GCB Bank (-7.5%) and Total Petroleum Ghana (-4.31%). GCB closed its trading day at GHS3.70 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange , recording a 30 pesewas drop from its previous closing price of GHS4.00. GCB began the year with a share price of GHS5.24 but has since lost 29.4% off that price valuation, ranking it 37th on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance.

Total Petroleum Ghana also closed its trading day at GHS4.00 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange, suffering a 18 pesewas drop from its previous closing price of GHS4.18. Total Petroleum began the year with a share price of GHS5.02 but has since lost 20.3 percent off that price valuation, ranking it 35th on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance.

At the end of Thursday’s trading session on the Ghana Stock Exchange, a total of 81,822 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 193,127.38, were traded. Compared with the previous GSE trading day (Tuesday, September 20), Thursday’s data showed 344% improvement in volume and 557% improvement in turnover.

Meanwhile, the current market capitalization of the Ghana Stock Exchange is GHS 64.4 billion.