The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) ended the first-half of of 2022 with a negative year-to-date return of 24.13% in dollar term.

This placed the country 12^th out of the 15 top stock exchanges on the African continent.

In cedi term, the Accra Bourse lost 8.7% return in the first six months of 2022.

This position is two places better than the 14th position recorded in the first quarter of this year.

The Ghanaian stock market was hit hard by the rapid depreciation of the cedi in the first-half of this year.

By the end of the first quarter, the market had returned a negative 16% in dollar term to investors, compared to 1.6% in cedi term.  

At that time, the cedi had lost about 15% in value to the US dollar. This performance is in sharp contrast to that of last year.

But the market has not been left out of the challenging economic environment.

For the Financial Stock Index, the market achieved a return of 0.52% for investors.  

The market capitalization at the end of June 2022 stood at ¢64.84 billion in June 2022, compared with ¢64.029 billion on March 31^st, 2022.

According to the trading results, 11 stocks on both the main and SME Market lost value, as against six gainers.

SIC Insurance (32 pesewas) was the best performing stock so far this year, gaining 46% return for investors.

The worst performing stock was however Produce Buying Company (2 pesewas), losing value by 33%.

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

South Africa    JSE ASI                        -9.81%

Malawi             MASI                             -13.05%

Morocco          MASI                             -17.49%

Ghana            GSE-CSI                        -24.13

Uganda             USE ASI                        -24.71%

Kenya              NSE ASI                        -29.51%

Egypt    EGX 30                          -35.79%