Local bourse loses GHS 748m in market value over cedi performance
The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) is estimated to have lost about GHS 748 million in market value at the close of 2022.
The decline in the bourse’s market value is attributed to the adverse impact of the weak performance of the cedi to the dollar as well as the country’s rising inflation.
The cedi suffered a year-to-date depreciation of 54.2 percent against the dollar at the end of November 2022, selling as low as GHS 15 to $1.
The cedi however, made a shocking recovery against the US dollar as of mid-December 2022 appreciating by 63.7 percent.
Unlike the cedi, the country’s headline inflation rate failed to recover and return to single digits as it continued to worsen reaching 50.3% at end-November 2022.
In cedi term, the GSE lost -12.37% return for investors and recorded -27.4% return for investors in dollar term as it ended 2022 with total market value of GHS 63.74 billion.
Comparing the market performance within two years – 2021 and 2022 – the GSE recorded 27.55% gain.
The 2022 performance was far behind the 2021 achievement where it was the second-best-performing stock market in Africa.
The capital market suffered in 2022 from the difficult economic environment.
For the Financial Stock Index, the market recorded -4.61% for investors.
Within the review year, 15 stocks lost value in 2022, compared with eight gainers.
The biggest loser was Unilever Ghana which lost 34.13% in stock value to sell at GSE 3.88 per share.
Some other losers were PBC (-33.33%), CAL (-25.29%), Fanmilk (-25%) and GCB (-24.81%). They traded at 2 pesewas, 65 pesewas, GSE 3 and GSE 3.94 per share respectively.
The biggest gainer in 2022 was, however, SIC insurance (287.50%), ending the year with a stock price of 31 pesewas per share.
Other gainers were Trust Bank Gambia (135.29%), Access (27.30%) and BOPP (7.65%).
