Undeterred by the gains seen during most of Friday’s trading session on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), the bank stocks unfortunately pushed the benchmark index into red and swang the market into negative territory, even as majority of stocks (mostly mid- and small-caps) did end with gains.

The benchmark GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI) pared 1.09 (-0.04%) points to close at 2,730.59 points. Despite the points lost, the index managed to gain 1.34 percent in terms of week on week performance and a further month on month gain of 0.07 percent. However, the index cumulatively recorded an overall year-to-date loss of 2.11 percent.

In the same vein, the GSE Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) also declined by 0.09 percent to settle at 2,116.98 points, making it a 1-week gain of 0.08 percent, a 4-week loss of 0.51 percent, and a year-to-date loss of 1.62 percent.

Trading Activity Goes Southward

Similarly, the level of trading activities across the market ended in the red as the total value and volume traded during the final day of the week declined appreciably. Likewise, the day’s turnover was also quite meagre, as a result of a smaller number of share packages that changed hands. At the end of the final weekday of trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange, a total of 1,928,211 shares, corresponding to a market value of GH¢ 1,562,554.27, were traded. Compared with the previous GSE trading day (Thursday, March 3), Friday’s data showed 51 percent decline in volume and 66 percent decline in turnover.

Leading the charts for the most traded sector by volume was the banking sector stocks. CAL Bank recorded the highest volume of 1.77 million traded shares. This was followed by Pesewa One with a total of 41,256 traded shares. Produce Buying Company also managed to land 36,200 traded shares, while SIC Insurance Company completed the list of top movers with 32,000 traded shares.

Gainers and Losers on GSE

Notwithstanding the index taking a negative turn on Friday, the local bourse posted some notable gains as the market witnessed some significant buy-activity across sectors. In total, 12 GSE listed equities participated in trading, ending with three gainers and just one loser. SIC Insurance Company led the gainers with 6.67% share price appreciation closing at GH¢ 0.16 per share, followed by Trust Bank Gambia (+5.26%) and Pesewa One (+1.54%).

However, the only equity that lost value on the day was Access Bank Ghana (-5%). ACCESS closed its trading day (Friday, March 4, 2022) at GH¢1.90 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange, recording a 10 pesewas drop from its previous closing price of GH¢2.00. Access began the year with a share price of GH¢3.15 but has since lost 39.7 percent off that price valuation, ranking it 37th on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance. Shareholders’ worries are compounded by the fact that ACCESS has lost 33 percent of the stock’s value from February 4, 2022, to date.

That notwithstanding , there are strong possibilities that despite some technical pullback and some gains, the market may again see some corrective moves from the higher levels after the National holiday.