Reopened five-yr bond fetches GH¢1.4bn
The government has raised GH¢1.39 billion from a five-year bond that was reopened on August 17 and closed the following day.
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The bond, which was reopened at its previous rate of 18.25 per cent, was marketed to resident and non-resident investors.
It was first issued in July, this year, as one of two five-year bonds scheduled to be issued in the third quarter of the year.
With the successful reopening, it means that the second bond, which was to be issued this month, will no longer be done.
Proceeds of the bond are expected to help support the execution of the budget which projects a deficit of GH¢12.8 billion, equivalent to 6.3 per cent of GDP.
The mid-year review presented in July said total financing of the deficit would comprise a net foreign repayment of GH¢1.3 billion while Net Domestic Financing (NDF) would amount to GH¢14.1 billion.
Just like the initial issue, the reopened bond will be listed and traded on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
Currency market
The cedi advanced against the British Pound and the Euro but stumbled against the US dollar.
The US dollar recorded a week-on-week appreciation of 0.20 per cent against the local currency in spite of its gloomy outlook on the international currency market.
The local currency traded at GH¢4.39 per dollar, representing a year-to-date depreciation of 4.43 per cent.
External factors on the Eurozone affected the euro, causing it to lose a bit of its shine.
The cedi rode on the situation to record a weekly appreciation of 0.21 per cent to trade at GH¢5.15 per euro.
The year-to-date depreciation of the cedi, thus, reduced to 16.10 per cent.
The British pound also slipped against the cedi on growing market expectations that interest rate will not be hiked until 2018.
The fall was the third consecutive weekly on the currency market and brought the British currency to its lowest in 8 months.
The cedi, thus, appreciated by 0.79 per cent at GH¢5.63 per pound with a year-to-date depreciation of 8.41 per cent.
Stock market
The equity market sustained the upward rally despite faced with several whipsawing performances within the trading week.
The GSE Composite Index advanced by 0.60 per cent to have an index point of 2,284.92 points. This brought its year-to-date return to 35.28 per cent.
The GSE Financial Stock Index also rose by 0.39 per cent to 2,107.49 points, representing a year-to-date gain of 36.37 per cent.
Total trade for the week was significantly higher than the figure recorded in the previous week.
A total 3.87 million shares had a corresponding value of GH¢4.85 million. This was about 47.44 per cent higher than last week’s total volume.
Liquidity on the exchange was mainly driven by Cal Bank Ltd; it accounted for 72.66 per cent of the total traded volume.
Market capitalisation also rose by 0.16 per cent to GH¢57.39 billion.
A total of 11 equities had their closing prices altered from their respective opening prices for the week.
Enterprise Group Ltd, the largest gainer, added 43 pesewas to close the week at GH¢3.4 per share.
Standard Chartered Bank Ltd and Benso Oil Palm Plantation Ltd upticked by 24 pesewas and 22 pesewas to trade at GH¢26.54 and GH¢5.3 per share respectively.
Fan Milk Ltd rose by 16 pesewas to settle at GH¢16.26 per share. Other advancers were Guinness Ghana Brewery Ltd, HFC Bank Ltd, Ghana Oil Company Ltd, Aluworks Ltd and Intravenous Infusion Ltd.
On the flip side, Access Bank Ghana Plc recorded its largest decline since listing last year. It shed 50 pesewas to close at GH¢3.50 per share. SIC Ltd also tumbled by a pesewa to settle at 10 pesewas per share.
Commodities
Crude Oil traded lower on supply jitters, as US producers failed to cut down output for the seventh consecutive time.
As a result, the price of Brent crude oil tumbled by eight cents to trade at US$52.02 per barrel at the close of the trading week.
Demand for the safe haven commodity – Gold, significantly picked up lifting the value of the precious metal to its highest in nine months on August 18.
The rising demand was due to reduced risk appetite, following series of tourist attacks in Spain and dovish sentiments for a rate hike in the US. Gold, thus, recorded a week-on-week gain of 0.10 per cent to trade at US$1,295.28 per ounce.
The supply of cocoa continued to outstrip its demand on the international commodities market with favourable climatic conditions in Cote d’Ivoire resulting in a stockpile of the commodity.
The selling pressure arose from this development, which then affected the value of the cocoa to trade US$122.00 lower at US$1,878.00 per metric tonne.
Coffee tumbled by 12 cents on broad weakness of the commodity, following pressure from low physical demand and ample supply from Vietnam and Brazil. It traded at US$1.28 per pound. –IGS Financial Services/GB