Banks, soap maker help Ghana bourse to year high

The Ghana Stock Exchange index extended its bullish trend on Friday, posting a new high for 2002, thanks to gains in banks, a dairy and a cosmetics maker, operators said.

Ghana Commercial Bank , soap and cosmetics maker Paterson Zochonis , Fan Milk and Social Security bank went up sharply, leading the all-share index up 40.3 points or 3.7 percent on the week to 1,132.68 points.

The market has been rising steadily since mid-February and has now gained more than 18.39 percent since the start of the year, more than compensating for the 12 percent slip in the cedi currency in the same period to 7,910 per dollar on Friday.

Commercial Bank climbed 410 cedis to 2,510, while SSB gained 101 to 3,401 cedis -- both at 12-month highs.

Paterson Zochonis rose 200 cedis to an all-time high of 1,600, its highest level since the company was floated in 1990 at a price of 105 cedis per share, before the cedi currency slid massively in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Dairy company Fan Milk FML added 130 over the week to close on Friday at 1,351 cedis.

Among the other best performers were the newly listed school book publisher and stationery firm Sam -Woode Ltd , up five, closing at 285, and Unilever , up seven at 3,007 cedis.

Block trades in Aluworks , British American Tobacco and GCB helped move total volume to 1.3 billion cedis ($161,314), slightly down from the 1.6 billion cedis traded last week and April's average weekly volume of 1.5 billion cedis.