On the Ghana Stock Exchange, in the recently released unaudited 2016FY financial report of AYRTON, the company recorded a dip in revenue during the 52 weeks period.

The majority holdings in the listed Pharmaceutical & Drugs manufacturing company were acquired by Dannex Ltd., from Adcock Ingram last year. Revenue fell by 15.84% from GHS 21,325,226 in 2015FY to GHS 17,948,340 in 2016FY. AYRTN, however, managed to reduce its cost of sales figure by 29.13% during the period. Admin/ General expenses and Selling/ Distribution expenses fell by 15.72% and 7.76% respectively.

Further dips in Finance costs and Income tax led to a 9.13% rise in bottom-line profit for the company over the 52 weeks period. Profit after Tax for the period increased from GHS 1,940,045 to GHS 2,117,192. Earnings Per share (EPS) also increased from GHS 0.0090 in 2015FY to GHS 0.0098 in 2016FY.

The value of total assets fell marginally by 0.2% whereas a reduction in short term loans and bank overdrafts led to a 21.79% fall in Total Liabilities.

Despite the dip in the revenue of the firm [owing largely to the difficulty faced by most manufacturing firms operating in Ghana], improvement in the bottom-line of AYRTN will be a major attraction to investors. Improvement in the profitability of the firm could readily reflect on the share performance on the bourse. In addition, cash injection into the business lines of the company by Dannex could further improve the operational outlook of the firm in the short to medium term.

Trading activity on the bourse ended with 4 gainers (GCB, SCB, SIC and SOGEGH) and 1 loser (ETI) yesterday. TOTAL topped trading chart in terms of volume as 257,000 shares worth GHS 557,808.00 changed hands. Returns on the Composite and Financial Stock Index pegged at 5.43% and 8.15% respectively.

Trading activity on the Ghana Alternative Market (GAX) was hushed yesterday as no shares changed hands.

HORDS currently lead record capital gains on the GAX, appreciating by 25% from 2016 year open.

The Cedi LOST marginally to the Dollar and British pound but GAINED to the Euro yesterday.

The local currency exchanged at a mid-rate of GHS 4.2810 to the USD, GHS 5.4127 to the GBP and GHS 4.6073 to the EURO.

The GCFM Cedi index, a measure of the holistic performance of the Cedi on the inter-bank market now records a year-to-date depreciation of 2.83%.