State of the Ghanaian stock exchange

Social Security Bank (SSB) and Aluworks (ALW) registered gains on Wednesday to push the GSE-All share index up 3.39 points to close 858.76 compared to 854.77 points on Monday.

Traded Volumes, for the first time in many months, rose to 3.1 million from a low of 33,800 on Monday led by SSB, which sold over three million shares posted. Brokers said the increasing volume is a "block trade" in which investors buy back their own offers to boost the equity's share price.

Despite the gains, however, the market was dominated by heavy bearish sentiments, with 16 out of the 23 listed equities returning downward pressures. Offers closed at 5.4 million shares, more than twice the 2.4 million at the previous session.

Bids were firmer at 3.1 million as against 73,700 shares on Monday. Market capitalisation closed up at 3,635.76 billion cedis from 3,628.29 billion at the last close. On the broader market, there were two price changes. SSB went up 95 cedis at 2,200 cedis and ALW gained 50 cedis to close trading at 3,450 cedis