•Stocks declined by 0.46% this week following losses in five counters in the banking, insurance, petroleum marketing and telecom sectors. The benchmark index closed at 2,222.86 with a -13.58% year-to-date return while market capitalization declined by 0.19% to settle at GH¢56.44 billion.

•Gains in Access Bank Ghana Limited (+5.26%), Standard Chartered Bank (+0.47%), GCB Bank Limited (+2.04%) and Ecobank Ghana Limited (+0.69%) pushed the GSE Financial Index up by 0.26% to close at 1,964.14 with a -8.80% year-to-date return.

•A total of 822,430 shares valued at GH¢1,260,297 changed hands compared with 2,621,356 shares valued at GH¢1,971,457 last week.

•GCB Bank Limited dominated trades by value, accounting for 54.03% of total value traded.

•We expect trading activity to drop next week as investors break for the holidays.

•Primary Market

•GoG raised 78.52% of its target of GH¢1,352 million at last week’s auction. Investors bought GH¢606.81 million of 91 day bills, GH¢130.27 million of 182 day bills and GH¢324.51 million of 364 day bills compared to GH¢655.90 million of 91 day bills, GH¢101.83 million of 182 day bills and GH¢23.15 million of 364 day bills last week.

•The yield on the 91 day bill and 364 day bill remained at 14.70% and 17.90%, respectively while the yield on the 182 day bill increased from 15.15% to 15.16%.

•The target for the next auction is GH¢764 million in 91 and 182 day bills.

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•Secondary Market

•A total of 2,142 trades valued at GH¢1.48 billion changed hands compared to 1,494 trades valued at GH¢757.66 million last week.

•Activity was concentrated in the medium term. Securities maturing in the medium term (2 – 10 years) accounted for the majority (53%) of trades this week while securities with short term maturities (less than 2 years) accounted for 36% of trades.