Strong gains in some share prices drove market activities on the Accra bourse in March this year, the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) has said.
The GSE Composite Index (GSE-CI), which tracks the performance of all companies trading on the Accra bourse, increased by 14.01 per cent in March, bringing the year-to-date gain to 12.33 per cent, the GSE said in the summary of March 2023 market activities copied to the Ghanaian Times.
"The continued rally of the GSE-CI was underpinned by dividend announcements from some listed companies and investors seeking to diversify their holdings," GSE stated.
It said the volumes of and values traded on the Accra bourse went up significantly by 2,730 per
cent and 588 per cent respectively, over the previous month mostly due to block trades in MTN Ghana shares.
The total value of 181,344,788 were traded on the market at a value of GH¢199,048,178.41, while total market capitalisation of the Accra bourse at the end of March stood at GH¢67,846.89.
The report said TOTAL shares went up by 39.82 per cent, MTNGH, 35.87 per cent, UNIL, 33.78 per cent, BOPP, 20.93 per cent, and GGBL, 9.49 per cent, and they made up the top five price gainers in March.
However, the GSE Financial Stock Index, on the other hand, achieved a year-to-date loss of 11.98 per cent in line with investors' expectations of reduced profitability in 2022 for financial stocks.
On the equities market, the report said, the volume of shares traded in March stood at 173,658,609 valued at GHc167, 969,700, both down by 19.22 per cent and 29.17 compared to the same period last year.
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The volume and value of shares traded in the same period last year were 280,656,909 and GHc301, 850,157.39.
"The cumulative volume of 181,344,788 valued at GH¢199, 048,171.4, represent a decrease of 35.39 and 34.06 per cent to the same period last year," the GSE said.
On the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM), the report said the GSE's fixed income market closed March 2023 with a volume traded of 5.57 billion, a decline of 39.26 per cent and 80.18 per cent respectively, over the previous month's and same period in 2022 numbers.
"Yields on short-term Government securities came down significantly during the Month, the 91-day Treasury bill ended the month at 19.39 per cent from 35.55 per cent at the beginning of March 2023. The new Government of Ghana bonds witnessed thin trading during its first full month of trading, post the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme," the report said.
It said the month closed with a total volume trade of GH¢5.57 billion, representing a decline of 39.26 per cent compared to total volume trades in the previous month and a decline of 80.18 per cent compared to the same period last year.
The report said the cumulative volume traded from January to March 2023 of 24.76 billion was a 61.35 per cent dip from the 64.07 billion traded in the same period last year
