Trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) opened the first week of July on a positive note as transactions were registered in 16 counters with three gainers and a loser.

The benchmark GSE-Composite Index edged by 0.1 per cent to close at 2,881 points, Nordea Capital Investment Stock Expert monitoring of trading trend obtained by the Ghana News Agency in Accra, on Wednesday revealed.

According to the Nordea Capital Stock Market watch report, CAL Bank rose by 1.6 per cent to close at GH¢1.30 per share, followed by GCB Bank, which appreciated by 1 per cent to close at GH¢5.20 per share.

Unilever went up by 0.1 per cent to close at GH¢17.81 per share; but Ecobank Ghana lost 0.6 per cent to close at GH¢8.40 to emerge as the only loser for the session.

In all, 59,543 shares were exchanged and these were valued at GH¢115,145.75.

Meanwhile review of the last week of June trading indicates that equity investors remained apprehensive despite GDP growth for first quarter of 2018, which edged marginally to 6.8 per cent.

According to Nordea Capital Investment Stock Expert, investors preferred to focus on macro issues where additional upward adjustments in May Producer Price Index (PPI) suggested further downside risk to inflation, amid an economy that continues to wrestle deficits.

In effect the benchmark index declined by 1.3 per cent to 2,879.4 points, dragging its annual yield further downwards to 11.6 per cent.

Selling spree across multiple sectors as the banks accounted for four out of the seven counters that recorded losses over the week as foreigners exited on account of a volatile Cedi amid panic selling by local retailers.

According to Nordea Capital, Tullow Oil led the decliners with a loss of 15 per cent to close the week at GH¢12.38, Mechanical Lloyd also backtracked by 8.3 per cent to end the week down at GH¢0.11 per share.

PZ Cussons lost 8.2 per cent to GH¢0.45, while Societe Generale also shed 7.4 per cent to GH¢1.26 as profit dipped in the first quarter results.

Similarly, Ecobank Ghana went down by 6.1 per cent to GH¢8.45 as interest income dropped and affected profit for the first quarter. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and Standard Chartered Bank were the other laggards; as they both lost 4.8 per cent and 0.6 per cent each to close at GH¢0.20 and GH¢27.00 per share apiece.

For the advancers, CAL Bank led the list, appreciating by 4.9 per cent to end the week at GH¢1.28 while Total Petroleum also advanced by 1.3 per cent to close the week at GH¢4.05 per share.

Unilever rose by 0.4 per cent to close the week under review at GH¢17.80 and Enterprise Group Limited which went up by 0.3 per cent to close at GH¢3.02 per share.

CAL Bank emerged as the most traded stock in value terms accounting for 79.4 per cent of turnover on the back of a block trade last Thursday.

A total of 6.2 million shares were traded for this week which was valued at GH¢9.1 million.

Nordea Capital is an investment bank, licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and offers a comprehensive range of services in asset management, research and strategy, corporate finance and private equity to institutional, corporate and private clients.

The GSE is the principal stock exchange of Ghana. The exchange was incorporated in July 1989 with trading commencing in 1990.

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