Advertisement

Foreign investors dominate equities market
Foreign investors dominate equities market

Foreign investors dominate equities market

Foreign investors continue to dominate the Ghana Stock Exchange’s equity market, contributing 51 per cent of trades between January and March 2023.

This is, however, lower than the 66 per cent contributed in the same period in 2022 and the 69 per cent contributed in 2021.

Over the years, there has been huge concern about how foreign investors were benefiting more from the equities market at the expense of local investors and firms.

In an interview with the Graphic Business in 2022, the immediate past Managing Director of GSE, Ekow Afedzi, lamented that the development was concerning, as a lot of the value was being repatriated.

“Most of us sat aloof, not looking at this market. People made as much as 270 per cent, 100 per cent and 70 per cent on this market. We are sitting here and the guy in the United States of America (USA), Hawaii or China sees that he can make a lot more money in our market but locally, we are not looking at our market,” Mr Afedzie said.

The contribution of pension funds in the first three months of 2023 also increased to 18 per cent, up from the 11 per cent recorded in the same period of 2022.

Local firms on the other hand contributed 28 per cent, with local individuals also contributing three per cent, bringing the total contribution of local investors to 51 per cent.

Total trades 

Volume and value traded were 173,658,609 and GH¢167,969,700.48 respectively, both down 19.22 per cent and 29.17 per cent compared to the same period last year.

A cumulative volume of 181,344,788 valued at GH¢199,048,178.41 represents a decrease of 35.39 per cent and 34.06 per cent to the same period last year.

Yields on short-term government securities came down significantly during the month: the 91-day Treasury bill ended the month at 19.39 per cent from 35.55 per cent at the beginning of March 2023.

The new GoG bonds witnessed thin trading during its first full month of trading, post-DDEP.

The month closed with a total volume trade of 5.57 billion representing a decline of 39.26 per cent compared to total volume trades in the previous month and a decline of 80.18 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The cumulative volume traded from January to March 2023 of 24.76 billion was a 61.35 per cent dip from the 64.07 billion traded in the same period last year.

Foreign investors dominate equities market

Composite index 

Despite a drop in both volume and value traded, strong gains in some share prices saw the GSE Composite Index (GSE CI) increase by 14.01 per cent in March compared to last month, bringing the year-to-date gain to 12.33 per cent.

The continued rally of the GSE-CI was underpinned by dividend announcements from some listed companies and investors seeking to diversify their holdings. 

Volumes and values traded were up significantly, 2,730 per cent and 588 per cent respectively, over the previous month mostly due to block trades in MTN Ghana shares.

TOTAL (39.8 per cent), MTN GH (35.87 per cent), UNIL (33.78 per cent), BOPP (20.93 per cent), and GGBL (9.49 per cent) make up the top five price gainers of the month.

The GSE Financial Stock Index, on the other hand, achieved a year-to-date loss of 11.98 per cent, in line with investors’ expectations of reduced profitability in 2022 for financial stocks.

GSE’s fixed income market closed in March 2023 with a volume traded of 5.57 billion, a decline of 39.26 per cent and 80.18 per cent respectively over the previous month’s and the same period in 2022 numbers.

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |