Cedi makes surprise U-turn against major currencies
The local currency, the Cedi, made a surprise u-turn from its downturn in the week ending October 9 after strengthening its gains against all the other major trading currencies on the interbank market.
It gained 2.68 per cent and 2.31 per cent against the Dollar and the Euro to close at GH¢3.71 and GH¢4.15 respectively.
The Cedi was also bullish against the Pound and the Swiss Franc, gaining 3.2 per cent and 2.38 per cent respectively as interbank traders offered an average of GH¢5.63 to the Pound and GH¢3.80 to the Swiss Franc.
The Rand also close in the red against the Cedi after losing 3.45 per cent of its value to the local currency.
The cedi, thus ended with a trade value of GH¢0.27 per a Rand.
Stock market
The stock market was in a bearish mood during the week under review with buyers dictating trading activity.
Five decliners outweighed five other gainers, resulting in the downward slide of the indices.
The GSE Composite Index lost 39.20 points to 1,999.92, bringing its year-to-date return of 11.55 per cent.
The Financial Stocks Index also shaved 57.26 points to 1,934.59. Its year-to-date change, thus slipped to negative 13.77 per cent.
What moved?
On price movements, Aluworks and Standard Chartered gained a pesewa each to close trading at 6GHp and GH¢16.27 respectively.
Demand in Fan Milk and Unilever also resulted in their values appreciating by 57GHp and 8GHp to GH¢7.35 and GH¢7.73 respectively.
GCB Bank also climbed 3GHp from GH¢3.70 to GH¢3.73.
On the other hand, five stocks clsoed lower. TOTAL Petroleum and HFC Bank dropped a pesewa each to GH¢5.36 and GH¢1.00 respectively.
GOIL and Guinness Ghana also eased by 7GHp and 19GHp to GH¢1.33 and GH¢2.00 respectively. Selling pressures in Ecobank Ghana saw its price shaving 80GHp from GH¢7.84 to GH¢7.04.
Trading and outlook
In all, a total of 1.88 million shares, valued at GH¢6.91million, were traded in 19 equities.
Fan Milk and Unilever had bids exceeding offers in all the sessions of the week.
Going forward, we foresee the prices of these stocks to climb this week.
HFC Bank, CAL Bank and Total Petroleum may, however, tick lower as some investors seek to exit their positions.
Money Market
At the end of the auction held on September 25, the short dated instruments gained some basis points while the 1 year and 2 year notes remained unchanged at previous levels.
The 91-Day bill moved from 25.31% to 25.32% whiles the 182-Day bill increased by 6 basis points to 25.97%.
The 1-year and 2-year notes remained the same at 22.5 per cent and 23. Per cent respectively.
The Central Bank raised a total of GH¢713 billion in bills and notes. -UMB Stockbrokers.