Stock Exchange Marks Improvement In First Quarter

Accra The performance of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) saw a marked improvement in the first quarter of this year with the volume of shares traded and value of stocks recording big gains. During the period, the volume of shares traded by some companies sometimes turned out to be low, but GSE officials say this trend is temporary and will improve during the year. According to the GSE Newsletter on the quarterly performance of the Exchange made available to the GNA in Accra today, the total number of shares traded from January to March through 37 trading sessions was 38.57 million. This was valued at about 40.18 billion cedis. This compares with 10.67 million shares valued at 10.87 billion cedis for the same period in 1996. The Newsletter said the 1997 figures include 40 per cent of Social Security Bank (SSB) shares made up of 28.5 million shares purchased by strategic investors, mainly from Ireland. Turnover for the period was 1.49 per cent compared to 0.41 per cent for the corresponding period in 1996. "Total Market Capitalisation as at March 31 was 2.76 trillion cedis, a drop from the 2.97 trillion cedis over the same period in March 1996." GSE said the drop represents a decrease of 3.5 per cent resulting from a fall in share prices of six major equities, notably Ashanti Goldfields Company, Aluworks, Fan Milk Limited, Ghana Commercial Bank, Mobil Oil Ghana Limited and Paterson Zochonis. The GSE All-Share Index increased by 0.62 per cent between January and March this year. This compares with the 7.37 per cent gain for the same period in 1996. The closing index for March was 362.99 points. On the Bonds Market, there was no trading in the Home Finance Housebond, the only listed bond on the Exchange during the period under review. The Newsletter said although there were bids throughout the quarter, no offers were made.