MOGL tops stocks on GSE

Accra, April 5, GNA - Mobil Oil Ghana Limited (MOGL) topped gainers in share prices in the first quarter of 2006 on the Ghana Stock Exchange with a percentage change of 42.1 per cent.

MOGL made 16,000 cedis to reach 54,000 cedis. It is followed by Aluworks Ghana Limited (ALW) which made 22.3 per cent (1,117 cedis), Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL) with 10.7 per cent (825 cedis) and Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) with 0.2 per cent (40 cedis). Stock trading analyst Ms Rosalind Dennis of Databank Brokerage Limited told the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday that the increase in the share price of Mobil was artificial and not the interplay of the forces of demand and supply.

She explained that the takeover of Mobil by Total Oil Company caused the increase in the share price of the Mobil stocks. Ms Dennis said the reopening of Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) for the supply of aluminium was responsible for the consistent increase in the share price of Aluworks.

In the past year when VALCO, the only local supplier of aluminium closed down, Aluworks had to import its main raw material, thereby increasing the cost of production.

Although the market price remains the same, the elimination of the cost of importation had reduced thereby making its balance books attractive to investors.

Ms Dennis said the merger of Ghana Breweries Limited and Guinness Ghana Limited made the new company better and to become "the titan of the breweries industry" with a wider product range as compared to the other brewery companies.

She also explained that EIC posted good full year results, which indicated growth prospects and possible good dividend by the close of year.

Ms Dennis said Patterson Zochonis stocks remained attractive but they were not liquid on the market. This meant that even though PZ stocks remained attractive, they were not available on the stock market because most of the shares (about 90 per cent) were held by the mother company, Patterson Zochonis International.

On the performance of Cal Bank, whose price slumped, but has registered modest gains in the past few weeks, Ms Dennis said the sharp drop was consistent with the continuation of the general decline in the share prices of overpriced stocks.

She said before it made a turnaround, Cal share recorded an average of -30 per cent but it registered a change year to date in its price of -3.5 per cent at the end of the first quarter of the year under review on the back of the company's interest to buy back some of the shares. Ms Dennis said trading in the second quarter would be more active in terms of volumes.

"Though the volume of shares may not be too high, they could go up occasionally to improve liquidity."

She said activities may not be bullish as the market registered in 2004 but they were likely to be active in the face of expected listings.