Tuesday’s trading session was a forgettable day for the local bourse as all major indices ended the session southward while volume of shares plummeted significantly.

Out of the eleven (11) GSE listed equities that participated in trading, the session ended with no gainers. However, one loser emerged- Unilever Ghana which suffered a heavy loss with 9.79 percent share price depreciation. The rest of the 10 major stocks that took part in trading ended flat- no loss or gain in share prices.

With many market watchers tipping Unilever Ghana to start the year strongly, the blue chip stock went against the predictions and ended the day in red.

Unilever Ghana Limited (UNIL) closed its trading day (Tuesday, January 10, 2023) at GHS3.50 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording a 38 pesewas drop from its previous closing price of GHS3.88.

It is however, worth noting that Unilever began the year with a share price of GHS3.88 and this was first loss it suffered for the year, ranking it 38th on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance.

In the intervening time, shareholders’ worries are compounded by the fact that UNIL has lost 19 percent of the stock’s value from December 7, 2022 to date.

In terms of trade volumes, Unilever Ghana is the 25th most traded stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange over the past three months (Oct 7, 2022 – Jan 10, 2023). UNIL has traded a total volume of 5,435 shares valued at GHS 22,488 over the period, with an average of 86 traded shares per session. A volume high of 1,090 was achieved on December 13, 2022 for the same period.

Unilever Ghana Limited is the largest producer and retailer of consumer goods in Ghana. It was formed on July 14, 1992 with a merger of UAC Ghana Limited and Lever Brothers Ghana Limited. Unilever Ghana is currently the largest quoted manufacturing and marketing company, supplying fast moving consumer goods across foods, and home and personal care product categories in Ghana.

Unilever Ghana Limited is traded on the GSE under the ticker symbol “UNIL”. Unilever Ghana Limited is currently the 21st most valuable stock on the GSE with a market capitalization of GHS 219 million, which makes about 0.339 percent of the Ghana Stock Exchange equity market.

At the end of Tuesday’s trading session on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), a total of 2,340 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 4,307.98, were traded. Compared with the previous GSE trading day (Friday, January 6), Tuesday’s data showed 85 percent decline in volume and 76 percent decline in turnover.

Unilever Ghana recorded the highest volume of 1,000 traded shares. This was followed by CAL Bank with 603 traded shares, while Ecobank Transnational Incorporated also secured 240 traded shares and SIC Insurance Company also ended the session with 230 traded shares.

Performance of GSE Market Indices

Owing to the general weak performance of the Accra bourse on Tuesday, the benchmark GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI) pared 2.28 points to close at 2,441.63 points. This represents a decline of 0.09 percent. The decline led to a week-on-week loss of 0.09 percent, and a month-on-month loss of 0.77 percent, and an overall year-to-date loss of 0.09 percent.

On the other hand, the GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI), which measures the banking stocks and insurance, maintained its value at 2,052.59 points, making it a 4-week loss of 1.17 percent.

Remarkably, the market capitalization rose by GHS100 million to settle GHS 64.6 billion.

According to experts, the market is likely to up its performance by the end of the week as demand for bargain stocks increases.