Trading activity on the bourse opened the week on a low note with two laggards pegging back the indices.
Benso Oil Palm was the gainer as ?it clawed back the nine pesewas it lost last week to open the week at GH?3.10.
Total Petroleum and Stanchart however opened the week on the back foot. Total Petroleum shaved 2GHp to GH?6.48 while Stanchart eased a pesewa to close at GH?19.97.
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Twelve equities changed hands with a total of 307,341 shares valued at GH?1.35 million being recorded. Ghana Commercial Bank had the lion?s share of trades as it accounted for 41.8% of volume traded and 39.0% of value traded respectively.
The benchmark Composite Index as a result declined by 0.05 points to close at 2,386.34. This corresponds to a year-to-date return of 11.24 %. The Financial Index (FI) also shed 0.29 points to 2,092.75, registering a year-to-date return of 17.12%.
Outlook
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Looking ahead, market watchers foresee impressive bids for Fan Milk, HFC Bank and Ghana Oil on the back of good trends that have been? observed. Investors are likely to take profits in TOTAL and SIC Insurance. Guinness Ghana, Societe Generale and UT Bank may also be under pressure.
GCB witnessed strong growth in Net Interest Income which rose to GH?459.96 million from GH?325.18 million recorded in the previous year despite an 80.89% increase in Interest Expense.
Staff Cost & Operating Expenses increased by 22.19%. The Bank was however able to reduce their Credit Impairment Losses by GH?10.57 million.
Total Assets and Total Loans and Advances improved by 14.21% and 13.31% respectively. Total Deposits also grew from GH?2.3 billion to GH?2.6 billion.
Ghana commercial Bank is currently trading at GH?4.09 with a PE of 4.73X and a PB of 2.85.
Analysts have rated GCB as a buy based on its financial performance. It is ?believe that the equity is currently undervalued on the market.
Short term rates maintained their northward drive at the auction held last Friday March 28, 2013 as investors sought higher premiums on their investments.
The yield on the 91-day bill added 18 basis points to close at 23.69%. The 182-Day bill also gained 4 basis points on the previous weeks 21.21% to 21.24%.
The 1-year and 2-Year Notes were however unchanged from the previous week?s levels of 22.50% and 23.0% respectively.
A total of GH?578.83 million bids were tendered by dealers of which GH?558.43 million were accepted by the Central Bank.
At the auction to be held on Friday April 4, 2014 the Bank of Ghana hopes to raise GH?477 million. Rates are expected to head higher as bid rates at the last auction ranged between 15.0% and 24.50%
On the Currency market, the Cedi continued to struggle for stability as it lost grounds to all the major trading currencies.
The Cedi depreciated by 0.28% against the Dollar as U.S. consumer spending rose by 0.3% in February. The greenback thus traded at a mid rate of GH?2.68 per Cedi.
Euro-zone inflation rate dropped from 0.7% in February to 0.5% in March, strengthening deflation worries and adding to pressures on the European Central Bank to ease its monetary policies. The local currency nonetheless gave up 0.35% against the shared currency with bank traders quoting an average rate of GH?3.69 for the Euro.
Against the Pound Sterling and the Swiss Franc the local currency also lost 0.41% and 0.24% to close at GH?4.46 and GH?3.02 respectively.
Dealers on the interbank market also paid more for the South African Rand with buying and selling rates averaging GH?0.25, 1.03% increase from Friday?s rate.
Five most traded equities
