Ghana Stock Exchange Adopts New Trading System

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has begun a new arrangement for a "continuous auction trading" on trial basis for eight equities listed on its counters.

The new arrangement, which started two weeks ago, allows the Exchange to trade for longer hours and forms part of measures to address difficulties faced in the use of the current trading system known as the 'Call Over System'.

Equities involved in the new arrangement were chosen at random to give all listed companies a chance to benefit from the trial run, which will last for three weeks.

If successful, the new arrangement will cover the rest of the equities after an assessment.

Equities picked for the trial are British-American-Tobacco Company (BAT), Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC), Fan Milk Limited (FML), Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Guinness Ghana Limited (GGL), Mobil Ghana Limited, Produce Buying Company (PBC) and Unilever Ghana Limited (UNIL).

The General Manager of GSE, Francis Tweneboa, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the exchange had experienced some difficulties in the current Call Over System.

This system allows offers and bids for only one stock at a time and does not make room for clients to bid to their advantage.

With the Call Over System, names of the stocks are shouted for offers and bids. If a client wishes to make a transaction after his chance elapses, he or she has to wait until the next round to make a match.

In the new system, boards will be provided for the quotation or display offers and brokers can match orders as and when it favours their clients.

Tweneboa said whereas the Call Over System lasts for about two hours, the new arrangement would continue for about six hours from 1,000 hours to 1,600 hours.

The closing time would also give brokers enough room to make settlements.

Yofi Grant, an Executive Director of Databank Brokerage Limited, lauded the new arrangement, saying it is an attempt to modernise activities of the GSE.

"The Call Over System has become obsolete and is a far cry from what exists on international markets," he said, commending its potential to allow brokers to talk to clients during trading on the floor.

Grant said brokerage firms agree to the new arrangement, which will serve as a pre-cursor to electronic trading to enable the Ghana bourse to be part of globalisation.

He said, however, that modernisation of activities on the GSE must be gradual to allow the smaller of the 12 brokerage firms who trade on the floor to catch up with the pace in terms of expansion of offices, clients and expansion of the trading floor.