The volume of securities traded shoots up to 9.48 billion in the third quarter of 2020 from 4.04 billion around the same quarter the previous year, as captured in the September 2020 Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM) Summary of Status Report released by the Ghana Stock Exchange.
This represents an increase of more than 100 percent year-on-year.
Quarter-on-quarter, the volume of securities traded surged by 4.98 percent, rising from 9.03 billion in the second quarter to 9.48 billion in the third quarter of 2020, the report added.
According to the Ghana Fixed Income Market Data, the volume of securities traded keeps fluctuating from the start of the year 2020 to date. Initially, nearly 7.8 billion securities traded at the beginning of the year. By the end of the first quarter, the volume of securities traded surged up to approximately 8.2 billion and further increased to 9.2 billion at the start of quarter two. At the end of the second quarter, it dipped marginally to 9.03 billion. Securities recorded its highest volume traded of approximately 10 billion in July 2020 but declined significantly to its lowest level of 5.7 billion in August, and then picked up again at the end of the third quarter, recording an average of 9.48 billion.
A summary of secondary market trades for the end of 2020 quarter three shows that out of 18,622 total number of trades conducted, 16,355 were in government securities, and the remaining 2,267 were in corporate securities. Government securities recorded the highest volume traded, inching up to approximately 8.5 billion, representing about 89.5 percent of the total volume of securities traded. Corporate securities, on the other hand, made up the 10.5 percent left, summing up to 992.1 million volumes traded.
In the report, a chart of figures describing the type of securities issued and the total volumes traded indicates that there were six different types of issuers namely the Government of Ghana (GOG), the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA), Cocoa Board, IZWE Plc., Bayport financial, and ABSA bank Ghana Ltd.
For the Government of Ghana securities, out of 8 types traded, the 2-year GOG note recorded the highest volume of securities traded, totaling 2.2 billion. Next in line is the 3-year GOG Bond with approximately 2.1 billion securities issued, and then the 5-year GOG bond issued about 1.8 billion securities. The 20-year GOG bond recorded the lowest among the GOG securities summing up to 57.6 million securities traded.
Based on the report, ESLA securities issued three bonds. The 12-year bond topped with 104.5 million of securities traded. Following closely was the 7-year bond making up 11.7 million of securities traded, and then the 10-year bond with a total volume of 10.7 million securities traded.
Except for the ABSA Bank Ghana Ltd, which had a total of 119.9 million volumes traded, the rest of the other securities aforementioned issued only one type of security, with Cocoa Board 182-Day Bill leading with a total of approximately 745.1 million in terms of volume of securities traded. Bayport financial 3-year FLR bond followed next recording 69 thousand, and IZWE Plc came to bear at 27,394, recording the lowest volume traded amongst all the securities.
The Ghana Stock Exchange, however, cautioned that ABSA Bank Ghana Ltd “is not listed on the Ghana Fixed Income Market”.
