The stock market sustained its northward climb last week with the indices defying ten decliners to close on a positive note.
The benchmark Composite Index on the strength of six gainers rose 24.21 points to close the week at 2,358.73. This gain in the benchmark index takes the year-to-date return on the bourse to 9.95%.
The Financial Index (FI) was also upbeat climbing 41.47 points to close the week at 2,099.80. The return on the financial index stands at 17.53%.
What Moved This Week
Enterprise Group rallied this week with demand by investors pushing the share price of the Insurance leader up 36GHp to GH?1.78. HFC Bank and Ghana Oil were also in demand edging up by 15GHp and 10GHp to close at GH?1.60 and GH?1.00 respectively. UT Bank also bagged 3GHp to 40GHp. Two other equities inched up a pesewa each. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated rose to 24GHp while Stanchart increased to GH?18.01.
On the other hand, Unilever and Tullow Oil were down to GH?17.62 and GH?34.79 respectively; Guinness Ghana slipped to GH?5.25 while Benso Oil Palm and Fan Milk dropped to GH?2.41 and GH?6.96 respectively. Societe Generale (SG) and SIC Insurance also dropped 2GHp each to end the week at 90GHp and 40GHp respectively. Other equities that registered losses were, Camelot, the Trust Bank (Gambia) and PZ Cussons.
Trading Activity
A total of 11.42 million shares changed hands in twenty-four equities. Volumes registered this week exceeded last week?s by over 500%. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (61.3%), Ghana Oil (19.4%) and CAL Bank (6.7%) were the most traded stocks. Total value of trades also improved by 137.13% to GH?10.23 million.
Outlook
In the coming week market analysts expect to see buyers continuing their search for marked down deals in Fan Milk and Unilever. Guinness Ghana and SIC Insurance are also expected to experience some selling pressure but Ecobank Ghana, Enterprise Group, GOIL and Ghana Commercial Bank may tick higher as buyers hope to match offers.
The 91 and 182-day bills rose marginally at the auction held last Friday June 06, 2014. The 1-Year and 2-Year notes however remained unchanged at the previous week?s rates.? The 91-day bill added a basis point to 24.08% while the 182-day bill gained 2 basis points to 21.29%. On the other hand, the 1-Year and 2-Year Notes were stable at 22.50% and 23.0%.
A total of GH?454.27 million was raised by the BoG, 1% above its target of GH?451 million.
On the currency market, the local currency failed to bounce back from the previous week?s reverse depreciating against all the major trading currencies.
The Cedi lost 1.33% and 0.86% against the Dollar and the Euro to close the week at GH?2.99 and GH?4.05 respectively.
The local currency also lost 0.91% against the Swiss Franc to GH?3.33 from the previous week?s GH?3.30. Against the Pound Sterling it trimmed 1.65% to GH?5.04.
The Cedi also closed on the back foot against the Rand as it lost 1.77% to close at GH?0.28.
Source Merban Stockbrokers Ltd
