The GSE Financial Stock index also trimmed by 0.08 per cent to close the week at an index level of 1,987.80 points, corresponding to a year-to-date return of 28.63percent.At the close of the week’s trading, a total volume of 2.80 million shares valued GH?3.85 million were recorded in twenty-three stocks. This represented a 27.85 per cent increment over previous week’s total traded volume.

Societe Generale Ghana Ltd lead the activity chart with 55.78 per cent of the week’s total traded volume but GCB Bank recorded the most gain with 38.13 per cent of the week’s total traded value. Market capitalisation however, declined by 0.12 per cent to settle at GH?58,057.83 per cent.

Stock price movements

On price movements, a total of 12 equities comprising of seven advancers and five laggards changed price. Investors of Ecobank Ghana Ltd had their share prices lifted by 11 pesewas to settle at GH?7.20 per share. Total Petroleum Ltd upturned by six pesewas to trade at GH?2.32 per share.

Ghana Oil Company Ltd and SIC Ltd upticked by two pesewas each to trade at GH?2.42 and 12 pesewas per share respectively. Benso Oil Palm Plantation Ltd and PBC Ltd increased by a pesewa each to trade at GH?5.91 and five pesewas per share respectively. Shareholders of Starwin Products Ltd also gained a pesewa to trade at three pesewas per share.

On the flipside, Standard Chartered Bank Ltd lost 33 pesewas to trade at GH?19.67 per share. Fan Milk Ltd also dipped by 23 pesewas to close at GH?19.40 per share. Tullow Oil Plc and Enterprise Group Ltd tumbled by four pesewas and two pesewas to trade at GH?17.69 and GH?3.98 per share respectively. HFC Bank Ltd also lost a pesewa to trade at GH?1.38 per share.

Treasury securities

The yields on the short-dated treasury securities witnessed mix adjustment at the Friday’s auction. The 91-Day T-Bill which is currently at 13.29 per cent, was up by five basis points but the yield on the 182-Day T-Bill dipped by 11 basis points to settle at 13.77 per cent. The yields on all other treasury security was however, unchanged.

Total bids tendered in the week auction stood at GH?938.23million, but GH?890.18 million bids were accepted by the Government of Ghana. This was below the Government’s target of GH?1,115.00 million.

In spite of Government accepting all the 1-Year T/Note securities, the majority of the purchased bids constituted the short-dated Treasury securities as they accounted for 67.62 per cent of the total purchase.

Government expects to raise GH?855.00 million from the sale of both the 91 and 182 T-Bills securities.

The upward slopping of the yield curve continues to show signs of economic growth with potentials of attracting long-term investment due to the assurance of good returns on such investment.

The normality of the yield curve coupled with improved inflation outlook are expected to deepened private sector engagement in economic growth to help scale down unemployment and poverty which are socio-economic threats to the economy.

Commodities

The energy commodity was kept afloat in the week under review on positive news. The third weekly inventory declines of crude oil in the United States of America, rising demand forecast by OPEC to about 30,000 barrels per day between now and end of 2018 and strong crude oil import data from China buoyed the value of the energy commodity.

The price of Brent crude Oil thus appreciated by $ 1.58 to trade at $ 57.20 per barrel.

The greenback’s loss on the international forex market, however, improved the demand for gold in the week under review. The disappointing consumer inflation data for the month of September and investors’ concerns about North Korea carrying out its missile test sparked the demand of the safe-haven commodity. The price of Gold thus rose by $ 28.17 to trade at $ 1,303.07 per ounce.

Cocoa closed higher in the trading week on signs the market is rebalancing following recent efforts by top producers to reduce the supply of the beans on the commodities market. The soft crop thus recorded a week-on-week gains of $ 8.50 to trade at $ 2,088.00 per metric tonne.