Equity Holdings of Foreign Investors Surge to GHS 33.6bn as Debt Holdings Fall to GHS 13.4bn
Foreign investors scaled back their participation in Ghana’s debt market in 2024, with holdings declining to GH₵13.4 billion at the end of December 2024, compared to GH₵17.5 billion a year earlier.
Conversely, their appetite for equities strengthened, as foreign equity holdings rose sharply to GH₵33.6 billion from GH₵20.9 billion over the same period, reflecting the improved performance of the stock market, according to the Bank of Ghana’s 2024 Financial Stability Review.
The Central Bank noted that foreign investors’ activity in the capital market was “mixed” during the review year. While equity security holdings expanded significantly, debt security holdings contracted. The Bank, however, expects foreign participation in the debt market to improve in 2025, on the back of sustained macroeconomic recovery and favourable economic prospects.
Stock Market Still Concentrated
The Review highlighted concerns of market concentration, with trading activity dominated by a few equities. The access dimension, which captures concentration levels using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), remained unchanged at 0.39 at end-December 2024. The measure also factors in the share of the largest ten firms by market capitalisation and trading volumes.
Stability Indicators Improve
Meanwhile, the stability dimension of the stock market recorded notable improvement. The stability index rose to 0.39 at end-December 2024, from 0.23 a year earlier.
The improvement was underpinned by a significant reduction in loss-making equities. The proportion of listed shares with negative returns dropped to 12.9% from 33.3% at the end of December 2023, signalling stronger resilience in market performance.
