Even without the support of bank stocks, the Accra bourse benchmark soared to yet another height on Tuesday, helped by the remarkable performance by one of the blue chips – MTN Ghana.

The equity market witnessed a notable gain at the end of the session, with the Composite Index (GSE-CI) surging by 146.09 points (4.91%). This impressive gain was fueled by a substantial 8.39%uptick in MTNGH share prices. As a result, the GSE-CI closed at 3,122.86 points, delivering a noteworthy year-to-date (YTD) return of 27.78%. Consequently, this led to a 1-week gain of 6.88% and a 4-week gain of 10.81 percent.

On the flip side, the Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) remained steady, echoing the silent price action of the listed financial stocks as the index was held firm once again at 1,715.17 points with a 16.44% YTD loss. Nonetheless, the steady performance contributed to the index gaining 0.43 percent on week-on-week and a further 4-week gain of 1.23 percent.

In the aggregate, 16 GSE listed equities participated in trading, ending with only one gainer, namely MTN Ghana, with 8.39% share price appreciation. MTNGH closed its trading day (Tuesday, August 1, 2023) at GHS 1.55 per share on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), recording 12 pesewas gain over its previous closing price of GHS 1.43.

This latest performance is symbolic, given that MTN began the year with a share price of v0.88 and has since gained 76.1% on that price valuation, ranking it second on the GSE in terms of year-to-date performance. Shareholders can be optimistic about MTNGH knowing the stock has accrued 17% over the past four-week period—third best on GSE.

The Number One Most Traded Stock On the Ghana Stock Exchange

Moreover, MTN Ghana is the number one most traded stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange over the past three months (May 4 – Aug 1, 2023). MTNGH has traded a total volume of 27.9 million shares valued at GHS 36.7 million over the period, with an average of 442,085 traded shares per session. A volume high of 5 million was achieved on August 1, and a low of 150 on June 16, for the same period.

The telco giant is currently the number one most valuable stock on the GSE with a market capitalization of GHS 20.5 billion, which is about 27.9% of the entire Ghana Stock Exchange equity market.

At the end of Tuesday’s trading session on the Ghana Stock Exchange, a total of 5,078,607 shares, corresponding to a market value of GHS 7,812,205.27, were traded. MTN Ghana recorded the highest volume of 5 million traded shares, followed by Produce Buying Company (30,140), Republic Bank Ghana (27,824) and Ecobank Transnational (7,808).

The breath-taking performance sent the market capitalization soaring. The current market capitalization of the Ghana Stock Exchange jumped to GHS 73.7 billion from the GHS 71 billion previously recorded.

Overall, it was a day of thrilling highs and steady lows, and the equity market left investors on the edge of their seats.