The Ghana bourse was ranked the third worst-performing major stock market in Africa for the first half-year while the Nigeria Exchange (NX) clinged the first position.

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) was ranked thirteen (13) among the fifteen (15) top stock markets on the continent with a return of negative 24.13 percent in dollar terms for investors in the first half of 2022.

However, Ghana managed to beat Egypt and Kenya which are the worst-performing markets in the 15th and 14th positions respectively with returns of negative 35.79 percent for Egypt and negative 29.51 percent for Kenya. In the ranking, the Nigeria Stock Exchange was the top performer with 21.81 percent returns.

In cedi term, the Accra Bourse lost 8.7 percent return in the first six months of 2022.

That notwithstanding, this position is two places better than the 14th position recorded in the first quarter of this year.

The Ghanaian stock market was hit hard by the rapid depreciation of the cedi in the first half of this year.

By the end of the first quarter, the market had returned a negative 16 percent in dollar terms to investors, compared to 1.6 percent in cedi terms.

At that time, the cedi had lost about 15 percent in value to the US dollar. This performance is in sharp contrast to that of last year, 2021 when the Ghana Stock Exchange was the best performing stock on the continent by this time of the year.

Amidst the struggles of the Accra bourse, the market has not been left out of the challenging economic environment ranging from inflation and depreciation.

The Financial Stock Index

For the Financial Stock Index, the market achieved a return of 0.52 percent to the investors.

The market capitalization at the end of June 2022 stood at GH¢64.84 billion, compared with ¢64.029 billion on March 31st, 2022 which was the first quarter of the year.

According to the trading results, 11 stocks on both the main and SME Market lost value, as against six gainers.

SIC Insurance (32 pesewas) was the best performing stock so far this year, gaining 46 percent return for investors.

The worst performing stock was however Produce Buying Company (2 pesewas), losing value by 33 percent.

Meanwhile, the Zambia Stock Exchange (LUSI-ASI) also continued its impressive run and came in the second position with 13.07 percent return to investors. The Tunisia Stock Exchange (TUNINDEX) came in the 3rd position with a negative 0.78 percent return to investors in dollar terms.

Despite the bad performance of the domestic market, analysts are upbeat about the prospect of the local bourse ending the year in a better position.