Market index
shifts up in spite of dull trading
Market index
shifts up in spite of dull trading
Accra(Greater Accra) 12 April 2000
The stock market on Monday
recorded dull trading but the All-Share Index, the main market indicator went
up significantly by 4.3 points.
The All-Share Index, which marked
time several times in the past fortnight, opened this week's trading up at
768.31 points from 764.01 points to push the change in the year to date to 4.37
per cent.
Shares traded slumped from 1.2
million to a mere 7,100 shares with Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) selling the
highest of 2,700 shares at 950 cedis.
Bids of 59,600 shares could not
match heavy offers of 1.4 million. Volume of shares offered and demanded on
Friday were 2.4 million and 1.2 million respectively. Market capitalisation
closed trading higher at 3,245.21 billion cedis from 3,238.41 billion cedis.
In the broader market, there were
two gains. GCB, which on Monday announced its intention to cut down on the size
of its work force by about one-third for efficiency, made 50 cedis at 950
cedis. Mobil Oil Ghana Limited (MOGL) went up by 50 cedis to close trading at
14,600 cedis.
Meanwhile, Paterson Zochonis (PZ)
said it recorded negative 54 per cent in profit after tax for the half year
ending November 30, 1999. This was contained in the company's unaudited results
for the period released to the GSE.
Profit after tax for the period
under review was 841.512 million cedis as against 1.2 billion cedis for 1998
while turnover appreciated by 14 per cent from 17.7 billion cedis to 20.1
billion cedis.
The management of PZ said profits
were below expectations due to substantial exchange losses being incurred from
limited and delayed supply of foreign exchange.
"While foreign exchange
shortages persist, full year performance will be adversely affected and
...could lead to a shortage of raw and packaging materials."
The following are the last prices
of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 500
AGC 18,600
ALW 2,450
BAT 459
CFAO 40
EIC 1,880
FML 972
GBL 1,450
GCB 950 +40
GGL 976
HFC 800
MGL 200
MLC 150
MOGL 14,600 +50
PAF 294
PZ 800
SCB 19,500
SPPC 150
SSB 1,998
UNIL 1,848
UTC-E 125
CMLT 421
GRi../