The stock market took an unexpected positive momentum in the first month of 2021, exceeding end of last year’s with bulls returning to the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
Despite an increase in cases following the second-wave of the coronavirus pandemic and its associated economic difficulties, bulls had the last laugh as the benchmark indices staged a smart recovery on the local bourse.
According to the Ghana Stock Exchange, Liquidity on the GSE debt and equity markets were high during January 2021. In addition to improved liquidity, the bulls started returning to the equity market with the GSE Composite Index gaining 4.41 percent to close at 2027.12 points.
The sectorial rally was led by Information and Communications Technology stocks with other sectors also supporting the upward move.
MTN Ghana stood tall leading the charge with 97.5 percent and 90.1 percent of volume and value traded respectively. 8 listed companies saw their prices go up during the month with 3 price drops.
Commenting on the activities in the debt market, the stock exchange revealed that the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM) market set a new month-high record, trading in “excess of 18 billion in a single month which was 35 percent higher than the previous high attained in December 2020”.
Volume traded on the debt market was 18.15 billion, “the highest monthly traded volume since inception,” the GSE mentioned, adding that, the volume traded represent a 132 percent increase over that of the 7.8 billion recorded for the same period last year.
“Number of trades during the month was 19365 representing an increase of 43 percent over that of same period of last year”.
In a similar vein, the equities market also saw a boost as an impressive 98.7 million shares valued at GHS 69.72 million changed hands during the month.
Compared to 56.29 million shares valued at GHS 45.44 million in January 2020, the figures recorded represent a 75 percent and 53 percent increase in volume and value traded respectively over the same period last year.
However, total market capitalization dipped year-on-year by 2.4 percent to settle at 55.33 million from 56.714 million recorded same period the previous year. This could be as a result of the undervaluation of shares on the exchange due to the current crises.
Highlighting some activities of the month, the Ghana Stock Exchange hinted that the Government of Ghana made a fresh issuance of 6-year bond at a price of 19.25 percent raising approximately GHS 2.87 billion.
Also, GSE is discussing with Fintechs and Industry Players to bring stock-trading to investors.
“All Listed companies will be releasing their end of year 2020 reports”. Enterprise Group Plc. and Total Petroleum Plc. have released their unaudited financial statement for the year ending December 31, 2020 showing strong growth in profits over the past year. Cocoa Processing Company Ltd. and Unilever Ghana Plc. on the other hand recorded losses, the GSE disclosed.
In spite of the markets showing boost in investors’ appetite, volatility is expected to stay high in the near term due to concerns of the new strain of the coronavirus also affecting market performance. However, with vaccines available, this may be curbed.
