GSE records negative returns

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) ended the year 2015 poorly recording a negative 25.60 percent return for investors in dollar terms.

The exchange in cedi terms also posted a negative 11.77 percent for investors.

The dismal performance of the equity market was largely due to the poor economic fundamentals driven largely by the unstable currency, high inflation and interest rates as well as the power outage which hit hard the manufacturing firms.

The GSE Financial Stock Index also returned negative 13.98 percent for investors in cedi terms.

Beside the Egyptian CASE 30, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Mauritius SEMDEX which recorded -25.28, -23.12 and -12.96 percent return respectively for investors, all other stock exchanges did better than the Accra Bourse. This includes the BVRM which constitutes all Francophone West African countries.

Despite the poor performance by the GSE, the year-to-date return rose 35 basis points on the final trading day of 2015, to close the year at -11.77 percent. This followed upward price movement in five stocks which were Aluworks, CAL Bank, Ecobank Ghana, HFC and Mechanical Lloyd.

The market capitalization of the 36 firms stood at GH¢57,116.87 million.

The trade value declined by 93.82 percent, compared to the previous session as 0.16 million shares valued at GHS0.16 million were traded. HFC dominated trading, accounting for 29.71 percent of the trade volume, and 27.41 percent of the total value traded.

Aluworks Ghana was the best-performing stock during the year 2015, registering 500 percent return for investors. It closed the year under review selling at 14 pesewas per share though it began 2015 with a share price of 2 pesewas.

The Trust Bank Gambia was the second best-performing stock recording 54.17 percent gain for investors to end the year at 37 pesewas per share.

They were followed by Starwin Products, Fanmilk and Enterprise Ghana which gained 60, 40 and 36.8 percent respectively. They ended the year trading at 4 pesewas, GH¢7.35 and GH¢2.40 respectively.

Other gainers for the year 2015 were GOIL, Mega African Capital, PZ Cussons and Standard Chartered Bank preference shares.

The 5 worst performing stocks were SIC Insurance, UT Bank, HFC Bank, Mechanical Lloyd and BOPP. They registered -62.16, -60.0, -46, -46.43 and -40.0 percent loss respectively.

In 2014, the GSE Composite Index ended the year with 5.4 percent gain for investors.

14 companies recorded gains. Out of this, 7 were financial stocks, 3 in the manufacturing sector and 3 in the oil industry. 17 companies however recorded losses including 4 financial stocks.