Stock market upbeat for 2016

The last trading day of the year closed on an upbeat note as the indices climbed for a third successive week on the back of advances in five equities.

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) Composite Index bagged 6.22 points from 1,988.80 to close the week at  1,995.02, bringing its year-to- date return to -11.76 per cent. 

The financial stocks index also got a boost, gaining 6.45 points to close at 1,930.30, representing a year-to-date yield of negative 13.97 per cent.

Movements in the week

On price movements, Mega Africa bagged 50Gp to close at GH¢6. Demand in HFC Bank and CAL Bank  saw the banking stocks gain 12Gp and 7Gp to 90Gp and GH¢1 respectively. Aluminium products maker, Aluworks, also inched up by a pesewa to close trading at 14Gp.

On the other hand, GCB Bank, Benso Oil Palm and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated lost a pesewa each to close at GH¢3.79, GH¢2.50 and 27Gp respectively. Enterprise Group completed the list of laggards, shaving 5Gp to GH¢2.40.

Trading

A total of 1.85 million shares were traded in 21 equities during the week under review. This compares to the 2.84 million shares that exchanged hands the previous week.

Turnover for the week came up to GH¢3.13 million as against last week’s GH¢6.94 million.

Outlook

In the first trading week of 2016, we foresee advancers giving the market a welcome cheer with the current low multiples of a number of blue chip stocks expected to give a boost to demand.

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In view of this, we expect shares in CAL Bank and HFC Bank extending their upward run.

Money market

On the money market, the 91-day bill lost some percentage points, while the 182-day bill climbed at the end of the auction held on December 24, 2015.

The 182-day bill edged up by nine basis points from 24.35 per cent to 24.45 per cent, while the 91-day bill closed at 22.90 per cent, falling by 21 basis points.

Further, the one-year note and the two-year notes remained at their previous rates of 23 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.

A total of GH¢779 billion was raised by the Bank of Ghana in bills and notes. This was lower than the GH¢1.10 billion it had projected to raise.

The Bank of Ghana expects to raise GH¢892 million at the auction to be held on December 31, 2015.