GRi Business, Economics & Finance 09 –
01 - 2003
Accra Bourse comes to life on the back of
banking equities
Inter-bank exchange rates
Timber export earns 169 million Euro
Accra (Greater Accra) 09 January 2003- The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) was rated
as one of the high performing Exchanges in the world in the year under review.
"The Exchange last year grew by 47 percent in cedi
terms and 32 percent in dollar terms due to good performance and increased in
domestic retail activities, a number of economic and financial experts told the
Ghana News Agency (GNA) Business Desk in
The Exchange established in 1991, has come through difficult
years of just 10 listed companies to the current 23 dealing in mining,
industry, breweries, manufacturing and banking.
Yoofi Grant, Executive Director of
Databank Financial Services Limited said the GSE has come of age and with
certain new developments now it is set to be one of the best performing in the
world this year.
He said especially the recent cross-border listing of the Trust Bank Limited of The Gambia is a cardinal thing that puts the Exchange in a new realm altogether.
"This development is a good omen, sending signals to
other countries that do not have Stock Exchanges that they can still trade and
also heighten international interest in the GSE's
potential of raising capital for development," he added.
Other financial experts and brokers who spoke to the GNA
Business Desk described the market's performance in the year under review as
significant in that the All-Share Index increased significantly from 955.95
percentage points from December 2001 to 1,395.31 points in December last year.
This compares favourably with 2001's gain of 11.42 percent.
The gain in the index is currently above the prevailing
annual interest equivalent on 91-day treasury bill of
26.63 per cent; it is also above the November 2002 12 month's inflation rate of
14 percent.
They commended the strong operating results by the listed companies and their resultant increase in share prices contributing to the market's return of 45.96 percent.
Giving a review of the GSE in the last year, Mr Ekow Afedzi, Manager Marketing,
Research and Systems said the Exchange indeed recorded one of its best
performances in 2002.
"Indeed it was the best since 1998 when the Exchange
was listed as the best in
Total market capitalization of listed equities at the end of
December amounted to 6.183 billion cedis recording a 58.4 percent increase over
the December 2001 capitalisation of 3.904 billion cedis
Afedzi attributed the increase in
market capitalization to the two new listings recorded in the past year - Trust
Bank Limited from The Gambia as well as price appreciations in almost all of
the listed equities.
The top 10 gainers in the market last year were the Ghana
Commercial Bank, Patterson Zochonis, Fan Milk
Limited, Mechanical Lloyd Limited, SSB Bank and Ashanti Goldfields Company.
The rest are British American Tobacco, Enterprise Insurance
Company and Unilever Ghana Limited. Afedzi said
despite the positive gains and bullish market trend the
market turnover of shares traded were below that for 2001.
"Volume of shares traded on the Exchange for 2002 was
44.12 million shares valued at 89,410.66 million cedis compared to the 55.30
million shares valued at 92,276.14 million respectively for 2001.
He commended government for introducing the government of
Ghana Index-Linked Bonds, saying it fared quite well with a transaction of 20
billion cedis during the period under review.
He said the GSE is very committed to improving the
efficiency of the market and professionalism in the industry. "By this we
revised our securities courses in the last year and introduced eight new
modules for participants."
Afedzi said the Exchange has great
optimism for 2003. Consequently, its plans and strategies for the future are
geared towards achieving targets that will serve as a pivot for capital
mobilization.
He explained that the Exchange would also aggressively
pursue listing programme intended to position the GSE as an attractive measure
for domestic investors to raise capital.
"The idea is to let domestic investors know that the
GSE is a good place to be. Hitherto, the big time players had always been
foreigners, but now we want to bring in the domestic investors and increase
liquidity at both individual and institutional levels," he added.
Another major move the Exchange would make, he noted, is
"to seek funding for the automating and settlement project that has been
on the drawing board at a long time. It could be a grant or through some form
of private equity arrangement."
The World Bank earmarked 1.4 million dollars in 2000 for the
automation project at the Exchange but the money could not be accessed because
of the uncertainty that clouded the economy at the time.
The Exchange also aims at boosting the demand and supply of
securities on the market and training of staff. "We will also create
awareness and increase promotional activities to bring activities here to a
larger number of people in the country."
On increasing the number of listed equities, Mr Afedzi said the Exchange is expected to be bigger this year
and those following immediately. Government holdings in Coca Cola, Juapong Textiles Limited, Benso
Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP), Barclays Bank
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
SSB Bank (SSB) and Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) led a party
of four gainers that pushed up the GSE All Share Index, the main market
indicator, by 10.12 points. It ended at 1,408.97 points from the previous close
of 1,398.85 points.
The bourse sold a total of 126,700 shares, up from 22,000
shares that changed hands on Monday. However, only nine of the 24 listed
equities changed hands. British America Tobacco alone sold 102,400 shares.
Change for the year was up at 0.979 per cent from 0.254 per
cent. On the broader market, SSB was 100 cedis richer at 4,100 cedis and GCB
was up by 81 cedis at 3,600 cedis. Patterson Zochonic
(PZ) gained five cedis at 2,010 cedis and Unilever (UNIL) closed two cedis
higher at 4,808 cedis.
Market capitalisation was up at 6,334.93 billion cedis from
6,314.18 billion cedis.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL
390
AGC 28,000
ALW 3,700
BAT 1,001
CFAO 67
EIC 4,600
FML 1,788
GBL
500
GCB
3,600 +81
GGL 1,050
HFC
955
MGL
254
MLC
272
MOGL 19,730
PAF 750
PBC
390
PZ
2,010 +5
SCB 28,700
SPPC 387
SSB 4,100
+100
SWL 285
TBL 4,850
UNIL 4,808 +2
CMLT 460
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Inter-bank exchange rates
Currency Buying Selling
U.S. Dollar 8,291.18 cedis
8,483.27 cedis
Pound Sterling 13,277.50
13,591.90
Swiss Franc 5,923.22
6,057.80
Canadian Dollar 5,310.15
5,430.02
Danish Kroner 1,162.60
1,188.94
Japanese Yen 69.00 70.59
South African Rand 957.29
977.05
Euro 8,635.21
8,834.51
CFA Franc 13.16
13.47
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Timber export earns 169 million Euro
Takoradi (Western Region)
This was contained in a report on Export of Wood Products
released by the Timber Industry Development Division. The report said within
the same period in 2001, 171 million Euros was realised from the export of
438,000 cubic metres of timber and wood products.
It said this meant that there was a decrease of one percent
in earnings. The report said about 61 percent of the value of export of timber
and wood products for January to November 2002 were realised from export to
From January to November 2001, 64 percent of the total value
was realised from export to
The report said the decline of export of timber and wood
products was due to increase in utility tariffs, difficulty in securing logs
and other inputs owing to high cost and export levies on some timber and wood
products.
It said the levies had been instituted to encourage the
export of value added timber and wood products. The report said
It said other ECOWAS countries that import timber and wood
products from the country, include
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com