- GSE Trading Narrows Around MTN As Telecom Stock Carries September 18 Session
Trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange reached 2.90m shares valued at GH¢15.25m on September 18, 2026, with MTN Ghana overwhelmingly dominating activity during the 7,300th trading session.
Ordinary shares accounted for 2.64m units worth GH¢15.01m, while activity on the Ghana Alternative Market and in the NewGold exchange-traded fund made up the balance.
The session was characterised by strong concentration in the telecommunications counter alongside gains in selected banking and insurance stocks.
MTN Ghana was by far the market’s most actively traded counter, with 2.06m shares changing hands for GH¢13.43m.
That represented approximately 71.00% of total market volume and 88.07% of total value traded, making the telecoms company the principal driver of the session’s liquidity.
MTN closed at GH¢6.69, up GH¢0.19 from its previous closing price of GH¢6.50, equivalent to an increase of approximately 2.92%.
The concentration in MTN meant that activity across much of the rest of the market was relatively subdued.
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated was the second-most heavily traded ordinary share by volume, with 280,653 shares worth GH¢448,404.55, while Kasapreko recorded 126,115 shares valued at GH¢230,955.48.
CAL Bank followed with 90,262 shares worth GH¢64,748.08, showing how dramatically turnover fell away once MTN was excluded from the session.
SIC Insurance recorded the strongest percentage gain among actively traded ordinary shares, advancing 5.03% from GH¢5.17 to GH¢5.43 on 17,722 shares valued at GH¢96,230.46.
Ecobank Ghana gained approximately 2.70%, closing at GH¢38.00 from GH¢37.00, while GCB Bank added 1.97% to GH¢40.79. CAL Bank edged 1.41% higher to GH¢0.72, adding to the pockets of buying interest visible across financial counters.
Several other large-cap stocks were unchanged despite recording transactions. TotalEnergies Marketing Ghana finished flat at GH¢37.80 on 3,009 shares worth GH¢113,740.20, while GOIL closed unchanged at GH¢6.10 after 16,706 shares changed hands.
Societe Generale Ghana also remained at GH¢5.60, with 13,367 shares traded for GH¢74,855.20, illustrating the relatively narrow range of price movement outside the day’s leading gainers and decliners.
On the downside, Dannex Ayrton Starwin fell 2.46% to GH¢1.19 from GH¢1.22 on 11,424 shares, while Kasapreko declined approximately 2.14% to GH¢1.83. Both stocks remained actively traded relative to many listed counters, but their losses showed that the session’s positive momentum was not uniform across sectors.
Several companies, including Atlantic Lithium, Benso Oil Palm Plantation, Fan Milk and Unilever Ghana, closed unchanged.
Trading on the Ghana Alternative Market was led by Intravenous Infusions, which recorded 208,979 shares worth GH¢109,298.87 and closed at GH¢0.52, down 1.89% from GH¢0.53.
Hords traded 31,489 shares worth GH¢19,208.29 without a price change, while Digicut fell 4.76% to GH¢0.40 on 23,547 shares.
Those three counters accounted for the entirety of active GAX turnover during the session, with Samba Foods and Meridian-Marshalls recording no trades.
The NewGold exchange-traded fund also recorded modest activity, with 221 units valued at GH¢102,186.16 changing hands. Its closing price slipped marginally from GH¢462.39 to GH¢462.38, a movement too small to materially alter the overall market picture.
The comparatively high value attached to a small number of ETF units reflects the elevated nominal price of the gold-linked security relative to most listed equities.
Several heavyweight counters recorded little or no activity despite remaining available for trading.
Atlantic Lithium, AngloGold Ashanti, Asante Gold, Cocoa Processing Company and First Atlantic Bank all registered zero turnover, while Unilever Ghana recorded only 252 shares and Tullow Oil 214 shares. Such thin trading across parts of the market remains an important structural feature of the GSE, where a handful of liquid counters often account for most daily turnover.
The session therefore reinforces the central role of MTN Ghana in providing secondary-market liquidity. Without the telecom counter’s GH¢13.43mn contribution, total market value traded would have been only about GH¢1.82mn, underlining the extent to which headline turnover can be shaped by a single stock.
That concentration has implications for market depth because strong aggregate figures do not necessarily indicate broad-based activity across all sectors.
At the same time, price action across financial stocks provided some support to the market. Gains in SIC, Ecobank Ghana, GCB and CAL Bank suggest selective buying interest in banks and insurers even as several other shares remained static.
The balance between concentrated telecom liquidity and selective financial-sector appreciation will be important in determining whether subsequent sessions broaden beyond MTN-led turnover.
For September 18, the defining feature of the GSE was therefore not simply the GH¢15.25m traded but the unusually concentrated nature of that activity.
MTN Ghana provided almost nine-tenths of total value and more than seven-tenths of volume, while most other listed companies generated substantially smaller transactions or none at all.
The session showed that liquidity remains available in Ghanaian equities, but it is still heavily dependent on a limited group of counters rather than being evenly distributed across the market.
