GRi Business, Economics
& Finance 09 - 09 - 2003
GSE Index declines after successive gains
National currencies to circulate alongside ECO - Ojo
GSE Index declines after successive gains
Accra (Greater Accra) 9 September 2003 - The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) on Monday registered a decline in its main indicator, the All-Share Index, after successive gains recorded in the recent past.
The All-Share Index declined by 4.55 points after Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) lost another ¢100 in a market that saw the volume of shares traded drop to 89,300 from Friday's close of 202,600.
The GSE All-Share Index ended at 2,593.77 points from 2,598.32 points. The change in year to date moved downwards from 86.22 per cent to 85.89 per cent. Market capitalization opened the week lower at ¢10,139.65bn from last week's close of ¢10,151.14bn.
On the broader market, there were seven price changes - six positive and one negative. Ghana Commercial Bank lost ¢100 for the third time to begin the week's trading at ¢7,800. British American Tobacco was up a cedi at ¢2,301, Guinness Ghana Limited gained ¢2 at ¢3,802, Fan Milk Limited went up by ¢4 at ¢2,940.
Produce Buying Company went up ¢7 to ¢1,108, SSB Bank was up by ¢2 close at ¢8,002 and Unilever finished at ¢8,720 with an ¢18 gain.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 460
AGC 28,650
ALW 4,000
BAT 2,301 +1
CFAO 74
CPC 630
EIC 6,800
FML 2,940 +4
GBL 800
GCB 7,800 -100
GGL 3,802 +2
HFC 2,650
MGL 270
MLC 600
MOGL 24,050
PAF 750
PBC 1,108 +7
PZ 2,254
SCB 58,505
SPPC 390
SSB 8,002 +2
SWL 288
TBL 7,000
UNIL 8,720 +18
CMLT 500
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National currencies to circulate alongside ECO - Ojo
Accra (Greater Accra) 9 September 2003 - National currencies would circulate alongside the ECO, the common currency of West Africa Monetary Zone (WAMZ) when it is introduced in June 2005, Dr Michael Ojo, Director-General of the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), said on Monday.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he said existing currencies of member countries would be given a reasonable period to be phased out.
It would facilitate dual pricing policy during the transition to the common currency, he said. "This will serve as a standard of measurement to allow economic agents to place value on goods and services and ultimately enable the public to get used to the new concept," Dr Ojo said.
He explained that the ECO Unit of Account would be an artificial basket of currencies, used by members of the WAMZ as their internal accounting unit.
"This unit will be the precursor of ECO and will allow economic agents to get acquainted to the new measurement concept before the new common currency is introduced and will lead to a smooth transition."
He said that WAMI is designing an Exchange Rate Mechanism to deal with the setting of exchange rate parities between currencies of the zone and an anchor currency, as well as margins of fluctuations that would be acceptable to keep macroeconomic conditions stable in the zone.
This will ensure that participating member states re-orient their policies
towards stability, foster convergence and prepare them towards the adoption of a
common currency.
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