Stock Market closes first week in New Year higher

Market Summary

Upward price movements in five banking and oil marketing counters pushed the benchmark index up by 4.07 points (+0.18%) to close the week at 2,258.68 with a +0.07% year-to-date return while market capitalization increased by 0.07% to settle at GH¢56.81 billion.

Banking stocks were the major advancers during the week. Accordingly, the GSE Financial Index advanced by 8.54 points (+0.42%) on the back of gains in CAL Bank (+8.54%), Ecobank Ghana (+2.41%), GCB Bank (+2.35%) and Republic Bank (+1.82%) to close at 2,019.65 with a 0.00% year-to-date return.

The SAS Manufacturing Index closed 32.24 points (-0.92%) lower at 3,481.52 with a YTD of 0.00% due to Guinness Ghana (-3.43%) and Starwin Products (-33.33%).

Standard Chartered (-3.61%) completed the week’s losers’ chart.

Trading activity soared despite a holiday-shortened week as a total of 16,983,146 shares valued at GH¢12,440,174 changed hands compared to 255,115 shares valued at GH¢606,765 last week. MTN Ghana dominated trades by volume and value, accounting for 97.18% of total volume traded and 92.87% of the total value traded.

We expect activity levels to surge as the holiday season comes to an end.