Financial stocks emerged the most active during first-quarter trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), accounting for 57.13% of total transactions within the period.The stocks, made up of nine banks and two insurers, also led the market in terms of the value of trade in the first quarter of this year with GH¢28.95 million - representing 51.53% of the total.This performance pushed the financial stocks’ index up by 5.39%, and drove the exchange’s main index to a year-to-date gain of 7.15% by the end of March – comparably better than the outturn in leading African markets in Johannesburg and Nairobi.Among individual stocks, Ghana Commercial Bank saw the most transactions with 1,273 trades - consistent with its history - followed by Fan Milk Limited and CAL Bank Limited with 1,025 and 912 transactions, respectively.Share volumes traded were highest among food and beverage stocks, whose activeness was caused especially by the de-listing of Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) following an offer to minority shareholders of the company by SABMiller Africa, the South Africa-based brewer.Food and beverage stocks accounted for 54.26% of the total volume of shares traded, while stocks of financial and distribution companies represented 27.79% and 15.97% respectively of the total volume of trade.March emerged the stock market’s busiest month of the first quarter amid the exciting of investors’ interests as companies posted their 2010 financial statements. About 44% of transactions within the first quarter happened in March, and this was an increase of nearly 60% over the previous month.Reported financial figures of listed financial companies show a sterling performance across the board, with listed banks leading in growth of revenues, profits and assets, and delivering higher earnings-per-share results.The combined after-tax profits of the seven home-based, listed banks for 2010 rose 38% to GH¢236 million and measured 40% of the banking industry’s total profits. SIC and Enterprise Group Limited, the two listed insurers, also recorded post-tax profits in excess of GH¢14.5 million, showing growth of 67% over 2009.Two de-listings have occurred in the last 12 months - ABL’s and more recently CFAO Ghana, the automobile-marketing firm - but with little impact on the exchange’s equity value given the minor contributions of these stocks to the market’s total capitalisation.Total market capitalisation improved by 12.33% in the 12 months to end-March 2011, topping GH¢20 billion at the end of the period.The expected listing of UK’s Tullow Oil plc was confirmed recently by Kofi Yamoah, Managing Director of the GSE, who intimated that the oil explorer’s initial price offer (IPO) will be the main highlight of market activities in the second quarter of the year.In its 2010 Annual Report released this month, Tullow said its revenue grew by 19% to US$1.1 billion, while its after-tax profit rose 137% to US$73 million from US$31 million in 2009.It also said the planned listing in Ghana will “go ahead as soon as practicable” after an initial postponement in December due to, the company explained, the need to focus on achieving first oil from the Jubilee field and undertake year-end corporate planning.The state-owned Volta River Authority (VRA), the producing arm of the power-sector triumvirate that includes Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCO) and Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG), is also reportedly considering a public listing to raise funds for investment, though this may take a while to materialise even after the government has approved the move.Overall, investors have demonstrated a generally upbeat attitude toward the exchange so far this year, and the local bourse appears on course to deliver a second impressive year of returns after its recovery last year from a plunge in 2009 - in the throes of the global economic recession - when its key indices plummeted in the face of low liquidity and a difficult business environment for listed entities.Source: B&FT