Drab Trading On Stock Market As Ashanti Falls

Accra, (Greater Accra) 10 Nov.,

Share prices lost their sparkle in very drab trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) today as Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC), the top bluechip, continued its free fall, dragging down market gains with it. Bearish sentiment dominated business as the market recorded two decliners and no upward movement on the very low volume of 37,940 shares traded, compared with Friday's 95,820. Offers continued to trail bids at 336,240 to 8,697.000. The GSE all-share index thus slid slightly by 0.93 points to 494.85 points, down from 495.78 points and the total market capitalisation also slumped to 2,893.57 billion cedis, down from 2,920.57 billion cedis. Share bids were heavy in Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL), four million and Pioneer Tobacco Company (PTC), three million but it was Social Security Bank (SSB) that sold the highest. It sold 30,500 of its 36,500 shares on offer despite the fact that there was no price change. On the trading floor, there were two losers and no gainers, as AGC led the plunge with a hefty 300 cedis down to 20,500 cedis. UTC- E also dipped in a narrow range of five cedis down to 100 cedis, to open the week worse. The remaining equities maintained their last closing prices quoted in cedis as follows: ABL 720, AGC 20,500, ALW 2,550, CFAO 40, EIC 715, FML 525, GCB 720, GGL 648, HFC 200, KBL 965, MGL 175, MLC 195, MOGL 7,700, PAF 170, PTC 390, PZ 330, SCB 7,410, SPPC 145, SSB 1,692, UNIL 940 AND UTC-E 100.