The stock market could not bounce back from last Tuesday?s slide as two decliners defied seven advancers to peg back the indices. Volume and turnover were however impressive.
Fan Milk and Enterprise Group topped advancers climbing by 6Hp and 4GHp to close at GH?7.05 and GH?2.11 respectively. Mechanical Lloyd and HFC also bagged 3GHp and 2GHp to 38GHp and 98GHp respectively. Three other equities inched up a pesewa each. CAL rose to GH?1.04 while Aluworks and Total Petroleum closed the session at 6GHp and GH?5.03 respectively.
Five top most traded equities
On the other hand, Ghana Commercial Bank for the 2nd conservative session led decliners shedding 15GHp to close at GH?4.80. PZ Cussons also trimmed a pesewa to 67GHp.
A total of 1.09M shares valued at GH?3.88M were exchanged in nineteen equities with Ghana Commercial Bank having the lion?s share.
The benchmark Composite Index as a result shed 2.38 points to 2,417.43, representing a change of 12.69%.
The Financial Index also declined by 5.91 points to 2,158.97. The year to date return on the Financial Index stands at 20.84%.
Outlook
Investors at the end of today?s session were seeking shares in Societe Generale, CAL Bank, Enterprise Group and UT Bank. Ghana Commercial Bank and PZ Cussons continue to be under selling pressure.
On the back of the foregoing, we expect the bourse to close the mid-week session on a positive note.
On the currency market the Cedi was under pressure as it depreciated against the Dollar, the Euro, the Pound and the Swiss Franc. It also gave up the gains it registered yesterday against the Rand.
The U.S. currency extended its winning streak versus the Cedi as the chairman of the Federal Reserve pledged today to maintain policies and ensure prices stabilizes at an inflation rate of 2%. The local currency was down 0.19% against the Dollar to close at GH?2.42
The Cedi also lost grounds to the Pound Sterling with a report on U.K. retail sales growth pointing to further recovery in the British economy. The Cedi dropped 0.13%, against the Pound to trade at GH?3.96 today.
Against the Euro and the Swiss Franc the Cedi shaved 0.04% and 0.25% with average rates by dealers at GH?3.30 and GH?2.69 respectively.
The Cedi trimmed 0.14% against the South African Rand with rates on the interbank market averaging GH?.022.
Source Merban Stockbrokers Ltd
