The Christmas cheer that has been part of the local bourse’s history in the month of December for some time now is clearly missing in 2022 as the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) signs off for the Christmas break with bearish sentiments.
Going by the bearish sentiments, Santa rally, which is usually associated with a surge in stock prices during the final trading days of December and the first 2 days of January, appears unlikely in the market now.
Twin fears of further cedi depreciation and escalating inflation rates rippled through the GSE benchmark indices acting like a Christmas party pooper for investors. The indices lost nearly 50 points taking cumulative losses in this month, December alone, putting much pressure on the Accra bourse as investors rush to take profits and raise cash ahead of the yuletide.
On the final trading session before the Christmas, Friday, December 23, 2022, the market breadth was skewed in favour of bears. At the close of session, one stock, namely Ghana Oil Company Limited, popularly known as GOIL, declined, while none gained and 16 remained unchanged.
The Only Loser
GOIL closed its trading day (Friday, December 23, 2022) at GHS1.72 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange, recording a 0.58% drop from its previous closing price of GHS1.73.
However, Ghana Oil began the year with a share price of GHS1.82 but has since lost 5.49% off that price valuation, ranking it 26th on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance.
Notwithstanding the loss, Ghana Oil Company is the second most traded stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange over the past three months (Sep 27 – Dec 23, 2022). GOIL has traded a total volume of 1.91 million shares valued at GHS 3.29 million over the period, with an average of 30,346 traded shares per session. A volume high of 1.84 million was achieved on December 23, for the same period.
On Friday, trading activity boomed as investors were busily taking their profits from the market. At the end of the final weekday of trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange, a total of 15,705,527 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 16,438,327.86, were traded. Compared with the previous GSE trading day (Thursday, December 22), Friday’s data showed 347 percent improvement in turnover.
MTN Ghana recorded the highest volume of 13.1 million traded shares, followed by Ghana Oil Company with 1.84 million traded shares. Societe Generale Ghana followed in a distance with 332,388 traded shares, while TotalEnergies Marketing Ghana completed the list with 229,575 traded shares.
Performance of GSE Market Indices
Regarding the performance of GSE market indices, the benchmark GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI) pared 0.38 (-0.02%) points to close at 2,444.16 points, representing a 1-week loss of 0.22%, a 4-week loss of 0.78 percent, and an overall year-to-date loss of 12.37 percent.
The GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) on the other hand, maintained its value at 2,053.05 points, making it a 1-week loss of 0.43%, a 4-week loss of 1.15%, and a year-to-date loss of 4.59%.
The market capitalisation of all listed companies on the GSE declined to GHS 64.5 billion. Meanwhile, a further decline is expected before the year comes to an end.
In the midst of the bearish sentiments, many market watchers are wondering if there will be a happy ending to December. According to analysts, due to several headwinds such as high inflation, rising interest rates, and depreciation fears, it will be difficult for the market to recover after the Xmas break before the 2022 ends.
