Activities on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) slowed down in the first month of 2022, as both the stock and the debt markets witnessed significant drop in volume traded.

According to the January 2022 Monthly Summary Report by the Exchange, only few stocks recorded gains.

Both the equity and debt market recorded declines in volume and value traded, as the market started the year on a very slow note compared to last year.

For the equity market, the month closed with 34.58 million shares valued at ¢38.8 million changing hands. The figures recorded represented a 64.98% and 45.09% decrease in volume and value traded respectively over the same period last year.

While the stock market retuned -0.81% for investors in the first month of 2022, the bond market started with a traded volume of ¢16.68 billion, a decline of 8%, over the previous year.

During the month under the review, the Ghana Stock Exchange did a presentation at the 2022 Policy and Governance Forum organised by the Ministry of Public Enterprises and State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA).

The move was targeted at getting some state owned enterprises to raise patient capital to revive their operations and list on the GSE.

Meanwhile, the managers of the GSE confirmed its position as the second best performing stock market in Africa in 2022 with a year-to-date return of 43.66%

The impressive performance ended the market’s 3-year run of negative returns.