Despite ending 2021 as the second best performing stock market in Africa, the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) ended the first quarter of 2021 as the 14^th performing stock market among 15 stock exchanges in Africa in dollar term.

However, it placed 11^th in local currency term.

The depreciation of the cedi to the dollar had impacted negatively on the market,  

The Ghana Stock Exchange returned -16.96% in dollar term to investors. This is compared to -1.67% in cedi term.

This performance is in sharp contrast to that of last year. However, its early days yet to say the stock market will underperform this year.

For the Financial Stock Index, the market, achieved a return of 1.07% for investors.  

The market capitalization at the end of March 2022 stood at ¢64.029 billion, compared with ¢64.49 billion in December 2021.

 According to the trading results, eight stocks on both the main and SME Market lost value, as against six gainers.

SIC Insurance (22 pesewas) is the best performing stock so far this year, gaining 175% return for investors.

Access Bank (¢2.09) is the worst performing stock, losing 33% in value since 1st January, 2022.

On the continent, the best performing stock market is the Namibian Stock Exchange (29.34%), whilst the worst performing market is the Egyptian Exchange (19.07%).

Below are rankings of best performing stock markets in Africa in first quarter of 2022 (dollar return)

COUNTRY	STOCK EXCHANGE	RETURN
Namibia	NSX 01	29.34%
South Africa	JSE-ASI	12.29%
Nigeria	NGSE-ASI	9.86%
Zambia	LUSI-ASI	6.70%
Ivory Coast	BVRM CI	6.30%
Tanzania	DSE ASI	2.06%