Trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) opened the first week of July on a positive note as transactions were registered in 16 counters with three gainers and a loser.
The benchmark GSE-Composite Index edged by 0.1 percent to close at 2,881 points, Nordea Capital Investment Stock Expert monitoring of trading trend obtained by the Ghana News Agency in Accra, on Wednesday revealed.
According to the Nordea Capital Stock Market watch report, CAL Bank rose by 1.6 percent to close at GHC1.30 per share, followed by GCB Bank, which appreciated by 1 percent to close at GHC5.20 per share.
Unilever went up by 0.1 percent to close at GHC17.81 per share; but Ecobank Ghana lost 0.6 percent to close at GHC8.40 to emerge as the only loser for the session.
In all, 59,543 shares were exchanged and these were valued at GHC115,145.75. Meanwhile review of the last week of June trading indicates that equity investors remained apprehensive despite GDP growth for first quarter of 2018, which edged marginally to 6.8 percent.
According to Nordea Capital Investment Stock Expert, investors preferred to focus on macro issues where additional upward adjustments in May Producer Price Index (PPI) suggested further downside risk to inflation, amid an economy that continues to wrestle deficits.
In effect the benchmark index declined by 1.3 percent to 2,879.4 points, dragging its annual yield further downwards to 11.6 percent.
Selling spree across multiple sectors as the banks accounted for four out of the seven counters that recorded losses over the week as foreigners exited on account of a volatile Cedi amid panic selling by local retailers.
According to Nordea Capital, Tullow Oil led the decliners with a loss of 15 percent to close the week at GHC12.38, Mechanical Lloyd also backtracked by 8.3 percent to end the week down at GHC0.11 per share.
PZ Cussons lost 8.2 per cent to GHC0.45, while Societe Generale also shed 7.4 per cent to GHC1.26 as profit dipped in the first quarter results.
Similarly, Ecobank Ghana went down by 6.1 per cent to GHC8.45 as interest income dropped and affected profit for the first quarter. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and Standard Chartered Bank were the other laggards; as they both lost 4.8 per cent and 0.6 percent each to close at GHC0.20 and GHC27.00 per share apiece.
For the advancers, CAL Bank led the list, appreciating by 4.9 percent to end the week at GHC1.28 while Total Petroleum also advanced by 1.3 percent to close the week at GHC4.05 per share.
Unilever rose by 0.4 percent to close the week under review at GHC17.80 and Enterprise Group Limited which went up by 0.3 percent to close at GHC3.02 per share.
CAL Bank emerged as the most traded stock in value terms accounting for 79.4 percent of turnover on the back of a block trade last Thursday.
A total of 6.2 million shares were traded for this week which was valued at GHC9.1 million.
Nordea Capital is an investment bank, licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and offers a comprehensive range of services in asset management, research and strategy, corporate finance and private equity to institutional, corporate and private clients.
The GSE is the principal stock exchange of Ghana. The exchange was incorporated in July 1989 with trading commencing in 1990.
Criteria for listing include capital adequacy, profitability, spread of shares, years of existence and management efficiency.
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