The Ghana Stock Exchange recorded 9 percent return in the first quarter of the year.In other words, investors who bought securities on the exchange between January and March could realize that margin of appreciation in the value of their shares.The appreciation, though marginal, compared to previous return, is still better than other investments like treasury bills and the interest that you would have realized on your bank deposits in a year.Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Ekow Afedzie explains to JOYBUSINESS what accounted for this sterling performance:“The main driver is the fact that the results posted by most of these companies have been good, if you look at Tullow, if you look at some of the companies listed they posted very good results for 2011. To me that is driving the index up, driving the prices up.”Meanwhile, Shares of Benso Oil Palm plantation returned nearly 60 percent to investors, the best on the Ghana Stock Exchange for quarter one.In other words, investors who bought into Benso, from January to march realize nearly 60 percent margin of appreciation in the value of their shares.Benso Oil’s performance beats other blue chip stocks like Ghana Commercial Bank and Total Oil.