A summary of market performance on the Ghana Stock Exchange suggests MTN Ghana, the renowned telecommunications giant topped trades becoming value and volume leader to close the market last week.
As the most traded equity for the day, MTN Ghana’s stocks trade accounted for 64.56 per cent of the total shares traded and 61.65 per cent of the total value of shares traded. Also, since the start of the year the telecommunications giant has been dominating trade for consecutive weeks.
Additionally, the local bourse recorded two price changes by the end of the week with MTN Ghana taking the highest gainer as its stock price appreciated by 5.33 per cent to close the market at GH¢0.79 per share.
The Benchmark GSE- Composite Index (GSE-CI) closed last week surging 47.56 points to end at 2166.29 points returning 11.57 percent to investors. Likewise, the GSE-Financial Stock Index lingers at 1874.40 with a year-to-date return of 5.14 percent to holders of banking and insurance sector stocks. Also, stocks of the financial and oil sectors including Cal Bank, State Insurance Company, Republic Bank Ghana and Ghana Oil Company performed well.
Total market capitalization also shot up by approximately 0.9 percent or GH¢497.88 to GH¢56,789.75, with a total volume of 6,505,761 shares valued at GH¢5,382,119.21.
On the commodities market, prices showed mixed results on the world market over the weekend, as oil price increased by 1.50 per cent as of the weekend, though the increase was lower than that of the start of the week, which was 1.63 percent.
The money market has also witnessed a gradual pick up with consecutive oversubscription of various treasury securities as decline in inflationary pressures boost investors’ sentiments on the market.
However, long-term dated instruments dominated the trading activities as compared to the short and the medium-term securities as trades in bonds accounted for 69.30 per cent of total trades while those of bills and notes were 26.42 per cent and 4.28 per cent respectively.
Currently, the Bank of Ghana has issued a 2-year Ghana Cedi Denominated bond with settlement and issue date effective Monday, February 22. This follows after the issue of the 6-year bond which was well patronized by investor hitting over GH¢2 billion.
On the forex market, the cedi continues to show some stability as against other currencies. Additionally, the government auctioned foreign exchange at its bi-weekly forex forward auctions. Although the Bank of Ghana recorded a slight decline in demand for forex in its recent sales compared to the immediate past auction, bids submitted by banks exceeded the stipulated target of US$50 million set by the Central Bank with US$ 2.9 million worth of bids considered invalid.
As the markets largely recorded some positive returns, amid the renewed threat from the second-wave of the coronavirus pandemic which has heightened uncertainty again. Inflationary pressures remain low coupled with vaccine optimism, showing signs of positive medium-term prospects on the financial market. However, investors must remain cautious as economic challenges continue to persist in the country.
