Cedi records mix fortunes

The cedi rode on ill sentiments to advance against the British pound and the euro but softened against the US dollar in the holiday-shortened week.

While the local currency gained 0.83 per cent and  0.27 percent against the euro and the pound respectively, it depreciated by 024 per cent against the dollar.

The dollar ended solid on the international currency market supported by upbeat economic data readings and the decision by the US Fed to lift interest rate for the second time this year in the US.

This cauased the cedi to record a weekly depreciation of 0.24 per cent to close at GH¢4.46 per dollar.

The year-to-date depreciation of the cedi to dollar thus extended to 0.86 percent.

The euro was generally soft in most trading sessions on the international currency market as both economic data and minutes from the recent held monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank dimmed market sentiment.

As a result, the local currency appreciated by 0.83 per cent to trade at GH¢5.18 per euro. The year-to-date appreciation of the cedi versus the euro thus extended to 2.15 per cent.
 
The pound also closed the trading week lower on the international currency market despite recording marginal gain on the last trading day

The cedi riding on the pound’s weakness, advanced by 0.27 per cent to trade at GH¢5.94 per pound at a year-to-date appreciation of 0.49 percent.

Treasury securities

At the the week under review, the yield on the 91-Day T-Bill rose marginally by three basis points (bps) to settle at 13.34 per cent whereas the rate of return on the 182-Day T Bill advanced by seven bps to settle at 13.89 per cent.

The yield on the other treasury securities, however, remained the same.
 
The government accepted all the bids tendered at the week’s auction. This stood at GH¢1.09 billion against a target of GH¢7410 million. This represents a growth of 164 per cent over previous week’s accepted bids.

The 182-Day T-Bill dominated government’s purchase as it constituted 50.71 per cent of the total bids accepted last week.

At the next auction, government anticipates raising GH¢615 million from the issuance of both the 91-Day and 182-Day T-Bills.

Stock market

The Ghana Stock Exchange continued its bearish run to record its sixth straight weekly decline at the end of the trading week.
 
The southward’s trending of the market indices was due to downward pressure from shares of consumable, energy and financial sectors on the market indices.

The benchmark Composite Index declined by 1.78 per cent to settle at an index point of 2,984.41.

This trimmed its year-to-date performance to 15.69 per cent. The GSE Financial Stocks Index also eased by 2.01 per cent to settle at 2,722.83 points, reflecting a lower year-to-date return of 17.84 per cent.

Trades ended much higher than recorded in the previous two weeks. Total traded volume stood at 2.3 million shares valued at GH¢1.51 million, up by 41.98 per cent of previous week’s total traded volume.

The week’s trading was dominated by Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Ltd; it accounted for 73 per cent of the total volume recorded.
Market capitalisation, however, nosedived by 0.58 per cent to close the week at GH¢62,067.20 billion.  

Volume of trade Price movement

Trading on the bourse ended with 12 equities changing price of which four were advancers and eight were laggards.

On the bull’s list, Standard Chartered Bank Ltd emerged as the best performing stock; it added 33 pesewas to close the week at GH¢27.33 per share.

Unilever Ghana Ltd and Enterprise Group Ltd upturned by eight pesewas and two pesewas to trade at GH¢17.73 and GH¢3 per share respectively.

Republic Bank Ghana Ltd also advanced by a pesewa to close at GH¢1.32 per share.

 GCB Bank Ltd closed the week’s trading as the worst performing stock, losing 75 pesewas to settle at GH¢5.19 per share.

Total Petroleum Ltd and Access Bank Ghana Ltd went down by 44 pesewas and 18 pesewas to close at GH¢4.05 and GH¢3.40 per share respectively. Societe Generale Ghana Ltd and Fan Milk Ltd also dropped by 15 pesewas and 10 pesewas to settle at GH¢1.72 and GH¢13.70 per share respectively.

Other laggards were Ecobank Ghana Ltd, Ghana Oil Company Ltd and Tullow Ghana Plc.

Commodities

The price of brent crude oil was held back by investors’ worries of the upcoming meeting of OPEC and other top oil producers in Vienna on the June 22, 2018 to decide whether to increase supply following supply disruptions by Venezuela and Iran.

Brent crude oil thus dropped by 45 cents to close the week at US$76.01 per barrel.

Gold advanced closing the trading week on a positive note as US China trade worries sparked demand for safe haven commodities.

The continued threat rebuttal of tariff impositions heightened in the trading week as China’s leader warned to heavy-hit the US with taxes if the US failed to recline on its intended decision. The yellow metal thus added US$10.00 to close at US$1,30.10 per ounce.

Cocoa overturned the previous week’s decline to end on a positive note. This followed a policy reform by top grower, Ivory Coast to tighten conditions for awarding licences to cocoa exporters.

This direction, which has the tenacity of trimming supply onto the global market, compounded the recent inadequacy of rainfall in the country to support the soft crop as it gained US$63.50. Cocoa thus traded at US$2,438.50 per metric tonne.

Coffee touched a two-and-half month low due to short-selling and the activities of long-liquidation speculating among traders in Vietnam.

The recent improving production output in Brazil also hampered on the value of the soft crop. Coffee thus dropped by a cent to trade at US$1.16 per pound.— GB