GSE & JSE To Merger ?

Preparatory arrangements have begun to merge the Ghana Stock Exchange with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which has a market capitalization of ?200 million. The merger stems from the comparative advantage the South African Stock Exchange has over its Ghanaian counterpart.

According to the Chairman of the Ghana Stock Exchange Council, Jude Bucknor, the GSE stands to benefit immensely from the sophisticated communication technology used at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange which is the 12th largest in the world. He said the GSE continues to operate a manual trading and settlement system which limits its ability to handle large trading volumes.

Mr Bucknor said the slow pace of development on the GSE in comparison with other exchanges could be attributed to high interest rates arising from heavy government borrowing which makes equities uncompetitive as an asset class.

He also noted that there is no transparent market mechanism for pricing and trading fixed income securities at the capital market.