NTHC weekly market reviews (Week Ended March 16, 2007)

GSE All-Share Index
THE GSE All-Share Index increased by 0.47 points, representing 0.01% above the previous week's level to close the week under review at 5,062.17 points. The year-to-date increase in the index as at the end of the week under review is 1.12%.

Market Capitalisation

Total Market capitalisation, excluding bonds and preference shares grew by 0.003% from the level recorded at the end of the previous week, to close the week under review at ¢112,422.54 billion. The year-to-date increase as at March 16, 2007 is 0.28%.

Volume and Value Traded

A total of 508,565 shares traded during the week under review. This represents a drop of 95% from the previous week's volume. For the week under review, sixteen (16) equities traded compared to the previous week's seventeen (17) equities. Aluworks Limited, which recorded a total traded volume of 175,217 shares, accounting for 34% of total traded volume for the week was the most traded equity. Total value of shares traded dropped by ¢6.88 billion from the previous week's level to ¢4.25 billion this week. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated recorded the highest traded value of ¢1.93 billion, representing 45% of total traded value for the week.

Price Changes

Six (6) equities recorded price changes, which were all gains, during the week under review. Enterprise Insurance Company Limited was the highest gainer as its share price rose by ¢19, representing 0.21% to close the week at ¢8,900.

Money Market Developments

Interest Rates

Exchange Rates
THE GHANAIAN cedi depreciated by 0.01%, 0.65% and 1.24% against the dollar, the pound sterling and euro respectively, during the week under review. On year to date basis, the cedi gained against the pound sterling but lost against the other two currencies.

Outlook

All things being equal, the closure of VALCO should put a downward pressure on share price of Aluworks. We expect activity on the Ghana Stock Exchange to relatively slow down because most companies especially those in the financial services industry will be closing their share registers prior to payment of dividends.

Financial Markets Review for the Week Ended March 16, 2007

GHANA STOCK MARKET
EQUITIES - MARKET SNAPSHOTS
TOTAL VOLUME and value traded during the week fell over the previous week due to a block trade in Transaction Solutions Ltd (8 million shares) last week. During the week, 508,565 shares worth ¢4,252.83 million exchanged hands. Market capitalisation at the end of the week increased by ¢3.18 billion to ¢112,830.96 billion.

Aluworks Ltd (ALW) traded most by volume accounting for 34.45% of total volume traded while trades in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the most traded equity by value, accounted for 45.27% of total value traded.

INDICES
There were slight increases in SAS indices during the week. The graph below shows the year-to-date performance of the SAS All-Share Index (SASI), SAS Manufacturing Index (SAS-MI) and the SAS Financial Index (SAS-FI):

The SASI gained 0.08 points by the end of the week to close at 734.73 points, which represents a year-to-date gain of 1.09% in the index. The GSE All-Share Index increased by 0.47 points to close at 5,062.17 points representing a year-to-date gain of 1.12%.

The SAS-MI increased by 0.02 points to close at 701.44 points which represents a year-to-date loss of 0.61%.

The ¢19 and ¢10 gain in the share price of Enterprise Insurance Company and Ecobank Ghana contributed to 0.10 point gain to close at 701.38 points. The year-to-date gain in the SAS-FI is 1.18%.

GAINERS/LOSERS
AT THE close of the week, six (6) price changes were recorded. All price changes were gains.
So far this year, eleven (11) equities have increased in share price while three (3) equities have lost value. Transaction Solutions continues to lead the gainers having gained 20.00% followed by AngloGold Ashanti Ghanaian Depository shares (6.74%), PZ Cussons Ghana (6.68%), Standard Chartered Bank (6.33%) and Fan Milk (5.57%). CFAO Ghana leads the losers having lost 12.28% so far this year followed by CAL Bank (4.76%) and Ghana Commercial Bank (0.11%).

BONDS

On the bond market, there were trades in two (2) of the listed two-year Government of Ghana bonds. A total of ¢507,950,636 and ¢291,616,662 worth of the 2-year bond with ISIN no. GHGOG006230 and GHGGOG006438 respectively were traded. Both bonds recorded price increases. The GHGGOG006230 bond closed at 103.0157%while the GHGGOG006438 bond closed at 103.3300%. On account of these gains, the SAS Bond Index (SAS-BI) gained 0.1174 points to close at 100.5771 points, which represents a year-to-date gain of 0.5771% in the SAS-BI.