Decline in GCB shares continue to impact on market index

Accra, Sept. 22, GNA - Share price of Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), the second most capitalized equity on the Ghana Stock Exchange, on Monday continued to decline making a negative impact on the market index.

The equity lost 500 cedis in the first day of trading for the week to bring the All-Share Index, the main market gauge, down by 7.2 points in spite of significant gains in SSB and the Trust Bank Limited (TBL) of the Gambia.

The All-Share Index opened the week down at 2,599.76 points from Friday's close of 2,606.96 points.

Mr Daniel Ogbarmey-Tetteh, a Vice President of Data Bank, a brokerage firm, told the GNA that the recent poor performance by GCB was due to the unimpressive half-year results it posted recently.

The equity, which began the year almost at 10,000 cedis, has recorded successive losses, which Mr Ogbarmey-Tetteh said, was investors' response to the decline in profits compared with last year's. He said investors might believe it was time to sell and take the profit they could before the share price declined any further. He dismissed speculations that government's decision to freeze the decision on the sale of its shares in GCB might be a likely contributor. He said the decision might be a remote contributor because it was only when government decided to sell the shares that investors were likely to take positions but since there was no incentive at stake following the decision to discontinue, there was no need for them to rush to sell.

Change in the year stood at 86.32 per cent while market capitalization moved down to 10,195.18 billion cedis from 10,213.35 billion cedis.

Shares traded dropped to 159,900 from 466,000. In the broader market, there were four price changes - three up, one down.

GCB lost 500 cedis at 6,500 cedis. SSB Bank gained 830 cedis at 9,130 cedis; the Trust bank of the Gambia was 150 cedis richer at 7,500 cedis while British American Tobacco was 10 cedis better 2,610 cedis.

The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:

ABL 460

AGC 28,650

ALW 4,000

BAT 2,610 +10

CFAO 74 CPC 630 EIC 7,000 FML 3,154 GBL 860 GCB 6,500 -500

GGL 4,002 HFC 2,650 MGL 270

MLC 652

MOGL 24,150

PAF 750

PBC 1,200

PZ 2,400

SCB 58,601

SPPC 390

SSB 9,130 +830

SWL 288

TBL 7,500 +150

UNIL 8,905 CMLT 520