The Accra Bourse went southward at the close of the holiday-shortened week due to significant selling pressure in some heavily capitalised stocks.

Among the stocks were Standard Chartered Bank Ltd and Fan Milk Ltd. With most of the trading sessions closing on a bearish note, the GSE Composite Index dropped by 1.35 per cent to settle at an index level of 2,521.67 points, representing a year-to-date return of 49.29 per cent.

The GSE Financial Stock Index also declined by 1.62 per cent to settle at 2,228.29 points, corresponding to a year-to-date gain of 44.19 per cent.

At the close of the week’s trading, 21 equities traded a total volume of 3.66 million shares valued at GH¢11.8 million. This represented 42.41 per cent increment over previous week’s total traded volume.

Liquidity on the exchange was mainly driven by Societe Generale Ghana Ltd; it accounted for 47.71 per cent of the total traded volume.

Market capitalisation, however, declined by 0.90 per cent to settle at GH¢58.5 billion.

Price movements

Price movements were observed in 13 equities; five advancers and eight laggards.

GCB Bank topped the gainers by 19 pesewas to end the week’s trading at GH¢4.50 per share. Guinness Ghana Brewery Ltd advanced by 14 pesewas to trade at GH¢2.06 per share. Ghana Oil Company Ltd and Societe Generale Ghana Ltd upticked by six pesewas and five pesewas to trade at GH¢2.67 and 75 pesewas per share respectively.

Starwin Products Ltd also inched up by a pesewa to settle at three pesewas per share.

On the flip side, Standard Chartered Bank Ltd and Fan Milk Ltd shed GH¢1.49 and GH¢1.00 to trade at GH¢24 and GH¢18 per share respectively.

Tullow Oil Plc and CAL Bank had their share prices trimmed by eight pesewas and five pesewas to close the week at GH¢17.2 and GH¢1.05 per share respectively.

Enterprise Group Ltd lost two pesewas to trade at GH¢3.83 per share. SIC Ltd and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated also declined by a pesewa each to trade at nine pesewas and 16 pesewas per share respectively.

Currency market

The cedi continued to be saddled with rising demand pressure on the domestic market. It lost against all the major trading currencies.

The dollar steadied on the international currency market despite mixed sentiments from the US economy.

The cedi, thus, depreciated by 0.13 per cent to trade at GH¢4.41 per dollar. The year-to-date depreciation of the cedi stood at 5.05 per cent.

The British pound rose to a six-month high on the international currency market following significant progress in the ongoing Brexit negotiation. It was, however, on the offensive against the cedi, with the local currency ending the week with 1.39 per cent depreciation.

The cedi, thus, traded at GH¢5.96 per pound, representing a year-to-date depreciation of 14.77 per cent.

The euro sunk to a one-week low after the release of Eurozone’s inflation data, which was below market expectation.

In spite of its decline on the international currency market, the 19-bloc currency rode on its broad base bullish outlook to advance against the local currency. The cedi depreciated by 0.13 per cent to trade at GH¢5.26 per euro, corresponding to a year-to-date depreciation of 18.49 per cent.