2017 Recorded 50% Growth Of The Stock Market

Stock market analysts have predicted a positive growth of the Ghana Stock Exchange at least for the first quarter this year.

The prediction follows a positive performance of the local bourse for last year.

In 2017, the Ghana Stock Exchange witnessed an over 50 percent growth.

Nineteen (19) out of the thirty eight (38) listed companies recorded gains for 2017.

This represents fifty percent (50%) of the total.
Also, ten companies recorded no price changes for the year with nine companies recording losses last year.

A further breakdown shows that ten out of the eleven banks that are listed recorded gains for the year under review.

An Associate, Equity Trading and Marketing at UMB Stockbrokers, Kofi Busia Kyei explains what accounted for the gains.

“If you look at the economic figures that were released throughout the year, we saw inflation dropping from January, also the foreign exchange market was quite stable in 2017 compared to 2016. In addition, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) also grew very fast in 2017 plus power was very favourable for such companies,” he said.

The value of the shares of GCB Bank which took over two banks; UT and Capital bank through a purchase and assumption agreement in 2017, went up by 40 percent.

The stock price went up from 1 cedi 45 pesewas to 5 cedis 5 pesewas in 2017.

Stocks that made losses in 2017 include Tullow Oil, Mechanical Lloyd and SIC Insurance.

The value of their share prices went down by 36, 60 and 17 percent respectively.

Market watchers say the repositioning of the operations accounted for such performances.

On the outlook for the remaining of the year, Kofi Busia Kyei is very confident of a strong performance and here are his reasons.

“We still see the banking stocks taking the lead because of the minimum capital requirement by the Bank of Ghana. Most of the banks are trying to get some funds trying to invest in their companies. We see most of them actually making the minimum capital. So investors would like to take positions quickly.”