From the Stock Market (Jan 8-12, 2007)

DSI maintains upward momentum

Activity on the market picked up markedly this week as compared to last week as evidenced by the number of equities that recorded price changes [the week under review witnessed a re-rating in the share prices of seven stocks; six gainers and one laggard].

The Databank Stock Index recorded a 1.37 point gain in its level to close for the week at 6,258.68 points, representing a year-to-date return of 0.04 percent on the market.

Highly capitalised Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) led the market charge this week, as its share price improved by ¢2,000 [1.3 percent] to ¢160,000. PZ Cussons (PZ) maintained its upward advance as it gained ¢295 on its share price to ¢6,995.

Total Petroleum's (TOTAL) share price was re-rated upward by ¢60 to close the week at ¢54,100. The week"s other market gainers were, Fan Milk (FML) [up ¢9 to ¢18,011], Ecobank Ghana (EBG) [up ¢4 to ¢13,531] and Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) [up ¢2 to ¢8,820].

Guinness Ghana Breweries (GGBL) was the week's sole market laggard, as its share price declined by ¢248 [2.68 percent] to its new level of ¢9,000.

Aggregate capitalisation for the Ghanaian stock market [excluding that for preference shares] advanced by ¢4.33 billion to ¢109.01 trillion.

A total volume of 243,057 shares valued at ¢5.1 billion exchanged hands on the floor of the Ghana Stock Exchange today.

CAL Bank was the most traded equity by volume this week as it accounted for 40 percent of the total number of shares that were traded, while Standard Chartered was the most traded equity by value, accounting for 79 percent of total value traded.

Stock Market outlook - activity to remain measured

Activity on the market since the onset of the year has been rather tempered. One does not expect this trend to change next week as we expect the majority of investors to hold their cards to their chest in anticipation of the full year results for 2006 of the listed companies which we expect to start trickling in.

Nonetheless, we expect some investors to take some strategic positions in some stocks as has been the case over the last two weeks, as there continue to be some bargains on the market.

We expect PZ Cussons (PZ), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), CAL Bank (CAL), Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) and Guinness Ghana Breweries (GGBL) to attract significant investor interest over the coming week.