The bear market ruling the Ghana Stock Exchange is refusing to go away as the stockmarket gets closer to its third full year fall on the trot. The benchmark GSE all share index closed the week 18.22 points (-0.98%) lower at 1,864.32 with a -18.21% year-to-date return due to Ecobank Ghana (- 14.29%) while the market capitalization moderated by 0.05% to close at GH¢53.27 billion.

The GSE Financial Index shed 33.21 points (-1.94%) to close at 1,667.29 with a -17.45% year-to-date return in spite of gains in Ecobank Transnational (+16.67%), Societe Generale (+9.38%) and Standard Chartered (+0.67%).

The SAS Manufacturing Index was unchanged at 1,934.21 with a yearto-date return of -44.44%.

A total of 10,686,783 shares valued at GH¢8,090,248 changed hands from 11,455,041 shares valued GH¢8,069,161 last week. MTN Ghana dominated trades by volume and value, accounting for 86.59% of the total volume traded and 69.75% of the total value traded.