GSE MD: 2021 proving to be one of the best-performing years

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) says 2021 is proving to be one of the best-performing years within the past five years.

This can be attributed to continuous education about the market, the performance of listed companies and the return of some investors to the equity market.

Ekow Afedzi, the managing director of the GSE, speaking during “Time with the Ghana Stock Exchange”, said as an Exchange, it had seen much improvement in its 2021 activities relating to the equities market.

The event was organised by the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists on the topic: “Mitigating Shocks through Long-Term Capital for Business: How Poised is the GSE?”

Advantage of approach
Afedzi said pension funds could do better and suggested that more companies be listed on the market to attract more investment.

He said what the GSE was doing was to expose the pension funds to a lot more on-the- market activities to enhance daily or monthly results on the performance of the market.
“So that is improving their interest in the market,” he said.

Afedzi said the advantage of this approach was the ability to access long-term funding generally, as well as improve corporate governance, technology and efficiency of the market.

The total volume of shares traded on the equities market in August 2021 was 20.67 million, valued at GHC27.49 million.

This represents a decrease of 7.84% (volume) and 18.36% (value) compared to 2020. Volume and value traded dipped compared to July 2021, as investors held on to benefits from dividend payments announced by various issuers.

Cumulated volume (370.19 million) and value (GHC368.71 million) traded for the year represented a decrease of 2.23% and an increase of GHC35.28 million, respectively when, compared to the same period last year.

On the Ghana Fixed Income Market, the market continued its impressive running, closing the month at 14.90 billion volumes traded, representing an increase of 143.31% compared to the same period last year.

The cumulative volume traded from January to August 2021 was almost double that of the same period last year, closing at a total volume traded of 140.96 billion, which was 116.03% more than the same period in 2020.