Ghana Stock Exchange continues to decline

Accra, (Greater Accra) 1 March '99,

The slide of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) continued on Monday as the main market indicator the GSE All-Share index slid further in a dull session. The market indicator lost another 5.3 points to bring the index at the beginning of the week to 856.73. The GSE went down by 5.3 points on Friday to close trading at 862.03 points. The change for the year remained at minus 1.34 per cent. Volume of shares traded during the day finished lower at 29,300, a further indication of loss of investor interest, compared to the 93,000 shares on Friday. Offers stood at 2,768,640 down from Friday's figure of 3,232,130 but bids were up slightly at 425,900 compared to Friday's 397,200. Market capitalisation was lower at 3,302.14 billion cedis down from Friday's close of 3,318.79 billion cedis. In the broader market, two equities made gains while four others were at the losing end. Ghana Breweries Limited (GBL) and Uniliver Company Limited (UNIL) were the only gainers making 150 cedis and 45 cedis to finish trading at 2,000 cedis and 1,800 cedis respectively. Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) lost 200 cedis to close at 800 cedis, Guinness Ghana Limited lost 100 cedis to finish trading at 1,000 cedis and SSB Bank lost one cedi to close at 1,999 cedis. Pioneer Aluminium Factory (PAF), which issued its 1998 result on Monday, lost 50 cedis to end at 350 cedis. PAF's profit after tax was down at 575.3 million cedis compared with 774.2 million cedis last year. Earnings per share came to 34.95 cedis compared with 47 cedis in 1997 while dividend per share remained at 30 cedis. Paterson Zochonis (PZ), which also issued its results through the exchange, recorded a turnover of 17.7 billion cedis, up 11 per cent over the 1997 figure of 16 billion cedis. Profit after tax was put at 1.29 billion cedis, up 12 per cent on 1.15 billion cedis recorded in 1997. Earnings per share were put at 46.37 cedis, up on the 1997 figure of 41.39 cedis. The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis: ABL 600 -200 AGC 18,700 ALW 2,600 CFAO 56 EIC 2,010 FML 1,450 GBL 2,000 +150 GCB 1,000 GGL 1,000 -100 HFC 750 MGL 225 MLC 245 MOGL 17,000 PAF 350 -50 PTC 415 PZ 850 SCB 24,000 SPPC 244 SSB 1,999 -1 UNIL 1,800 +45 UTC-E 125

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