- GSE Liquidity Rebounds Sharply, But Activity Remains Concentrated in One Stock
Trading activity on the Ghana Stock Exchange surged on Wednesday, October 7, as investors exchanged nearly 12.9m MTN Ghana shares, pushing total market turnover above GH¢82m.
The market recorded 13.38m shares valued at GH¢82.25m, compared with 965,122 shares worth GH¢3.23m in the previous session.
This represented a 1,287 per cent increase in trading volume and a 2,447 per cent rise in value.
But the headline increase did not reflect a broad improvement in liquidity across the market. Scancom PLC, which trades as MTN Ghana, accounted for 12.88m shares worth GH¢81.16m.
The telecommunications company therefore represented 96.2 per cent of total shares traded and 98.7 per cent of the session’s value.
MTN Ghana’s share price declined by GH¢0.26, or 4 per cent, from GH¢6.56 to GH¢6.30. The stock opened at GH¢6.56 and its final transaction also occurred at GH¢6.30, indicating sustained selling pressure during the session.
The company closed with a bid price of GH¢6.20 and an offer price of GH¢6.30, suggesting buyers remained cautious after the decline.
The sharp increase in turnover illustrates the distorting effect that a large institutional transaction can have on headline market activity.
Excluding MTN Ghana, the rest of the market traded only 506,865 shares worth approximately GH¢1.09m.
That means more than 30 ordinary and alternative-market securities collectively accounted for just 1.3 per cent of the session’s value.
The concentration raises an important question about the depth of Ghana’s equities market. A session can record apparently strong turnover while most listed companies remain thinly traded or completely inactive.
Eight ordinary shares including Agricultural Development Bank, AngloGold Ashanti, Aluworks, Asante Gold, Cocoa Processing Company, First Atlantic Bank, Mega African Capital and PBC recorded no transactions.
Standard Chartered Bank Ghana also ended unchanged without a trade, while its quoted offer stood at GH¢69.85.
Three stocks advanced while five declined, leaving market breadth tilted towards sellers.
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated gained GH¢0.01 to close at GH¢1.68. Kasapreko also rose by GH¢0.01 to GH¢1.88.
On the Ghana Alternative Market, Meridian-Marshalls Holdings climbed from GH¢0.12 to GH¢0.13, representing an 8.3 per cent increase. The stock recorded 35,000 shares worth GH¢4,550.
Ghana Oil Company recorded the steepest decline among ordinary shares, falling GH¢0.33, or 5.5 per cent, to GH¢5.62.
The decline reversed more than the GH¢0.07 gain recorded in the previous session, when GOIL closed at GH¢5.95.
SIC Insurance fell GH¢0.05 to GH¢5.04, while Societe Generale Ghana declined by the same amount to GH¢5.05.
Intravenous Infusions lost GH¢0.01 to close at GH¢0.54 on the alternative market.
The declines in MTN Ghana and GOIL were particularly significant because both counters have previously attracted substantial investor interest. MTN’s market size also means its price movements can have a pronounced effect on the broader market’s performance.
Kasapreko was the second most actively traded ordinary share, with 112,726 shares valued at GH¢212,612.61.
CalBank followed with 118,025 shares worth GH¢87,463.41, although its share price remained unchanged at GH¢0.74.
SIC recorded 24,576 shares valued at GH¢124,356.84, while TotalEnergies Marketing Ghana traded 5,331 shares worth GH¢205,243.50.
TotalEnergies held at GH¢38.50 after gaining GH¢3.18 in the previous session. The unchanged close suggests that investors consolidated the stock’s earlier advance rather than extending it immediately.
Benso Oil Palm Plantation also remained unchanged at GH¢75 after 1,322 shares changed hands for GH¢99,150.
On the alternative market, Digicut recorded 102,269 shares worth GH¢53,293.56 but closed unchanged at GH¢0.52. Intravenous Infusions traded 43,118 shares valued at GH¢22,972.54.
The NewGold exchange-traded fund recorded only four units worth GH¢1,849.52 and held at GH¢462.38.
Wednesday’s session represents a substantial improvement over Tuesday’s subdued turnover, but the concentration in MTN Ghana means the rebound should be interpreted carefully.
High turnover in a declining stock can indicate portfolio rebalancing, institutional exits, block transactions or investors taking profits. Without corresponding demand across other counters, it does not necessarily signal broad confidence in the equities market.
MTN Ghana remains one of the exchange’s most liquid and widely held securities, making it a natural entry and exit point for institutional investors. That liquidity is valuable, but the market’s dependence on a small number of counters makes aggregate turnover volatile.
The session also demonstrates that liquidity and price performance can move in opposite directions. Trading value expanded more than twenty-five-fold, yet the dominant stock lost 4 per cent and market breadth remained negative.
For the GSE, the deeper structural challenge is therefore not merely attracting larger transactions. It is spreading activity across more listed companies so that strong turnover represents a broad market rather than a single highly liquid counter.
Wednesday’s GH¢82.25m turnover was impressive in size. Its composition, however, shows that the Ghanaian equities market remains narrower than the headline figure suggests.
