Year-To-Date Return On DSI Approaches 5 Per Cent

Off the back of 10 gainers, the Databank Stock Index [DSI] gained 13.75 points to 6,568.44 points and therefore closed the week at a year-to-date return of 4.99 per cent.

There was one laggard on the market last week. CAL was the most traded equity by volume, accounting for 85 per cent of the total 8.9 million shares traded during the week.

Aggregate market turnover improved by 30 per cent over the previous week's level to ¢30 billion.

Market Outlook

Market Fundamentals to Attract Investors:

With the exception of manufacturing companies, which are energy-sensitive, earnings prospects for most listed companies [especially financial companies] look promising.

Against this background, therefore, we expect banking stocks like CAL Bank [CAL], Ecobank Ghana [EBG] and Ghana Commercial Bank [GCB] to attract investor interest.

Other listed companies with attractive financial values such as Fan Milk and TOTAL are also tipped to sustain investor interest in the coming week.

Investors may place their funds on long-term prospects of Fan Milk, despite the possibility of adverse short-term effects of the energy crisis on the company.

BOPP may also attract some activity over the coming weeks. Available information shows that some investors are slowly buying off long awaited sellers, who have been eager to reduce their risk exposure to the agriculture stock.

BOPP bounced back from 2005's poor performance and measures put in place by the company's management suggested a sustainable future performance.

Company News

Ecobank Development Corporation has been appointed as co-advisor for the privatisation of Ghana Telecom.

The company has also been appointed as one of the financial institutions to manage the first international sovereign bond issue of US$500 million by the Government of Ghana.

Mechanical Lloyd [MLC] and Starwin Products [SPL] have announced final dividends of ¢40 and ¢10 respectively, for their financial years, both of which ended on December 31, 2006.

The result of the HFC series J. Housbond offer has been released. HFC Bank raised a total amount of US$ 3,930,500 through the Housbond offer.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated [ETI] has listed additional 2,568,898 shares on the GSE. These shares represent ESOP subscription of 1,284,449, which has been doubled as a result of the ETI share spilt of 1:1.

The company also announced that Mr Kofi Bucknor has resigned from his position as a Director of the company, effective March 17, 2007.