The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) in 2021 recorded a strong performance and returned 43.66 per cent to investors.
This made the GSE the second best performing Exchange in Africa and ended the market’s three-year run of negative returns.
MrEkowAfedzie, the Managing Director of GSE, who stated this during an interaction with the media on Tuesday, said the positive investor confidence fuelled by strong earnings and low share prices underpinned the GSE’s impressive performance in 2021.
The interaction dubbed ‘GSE MDs Breakfast with the media,’ was to brief reporters of the performance of the GSE for 2021 and outlook for 2022.
MrAfedziesaid the GSE Composite Index, which tracks the performance of all companies traded in the GSE, rose to 2,789.34 from 1941.59 in 2020, representing an increase of 43.66 per cent.
He said the GSE Financial Index also increased to 2.151.85 representing an increase of 20.70 per cent.
The GSE Managing Director said the total value of shares traded on the Accra bourse in the period under review dipped by 7.30 per cent to GH¢533.27 million.
“Total Market Capitalisation increased to GH¢ 64,495.20 million in 2021, representing a jump of 18.61 percentage points,” MrAfedzie said, adding that “2021 recorded the highest ever year-end market capitalisation of the Exchange.”
He said the performance on the Accra bourse reflected the performance of the economy in 2021, following the recovery of the economy from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“The GSE does well when the economy performs well and vice versa. Share prices reflect the underlying performance of the company and the economy in general,” MrAfedzie said.
He said the GSE was working to increase the size of equity market, which constituted 15 per cent of Gross Domestic Product to 30 per cent within the next five years.
“The objective of GSE is to improve equity listing from 39 to 64 within the next five years,” MrAfedzie said.
To this end, the MrAfedziesaid the GSE was engaging the National Pensions Regulatory Authority to get pensions funds to be listed on the equities market.
The Managing Director of the GSE stated that the bond market recorded its best performing year since it was launched in 2015, with total bonds and notes traded amounting to GH¢208.81 billion.
That, Mr Afedzie said represented a 92.62 per cent increase over the 2021 figure of GH¢108, 405 million.
Touching on the Ghana Fixed Income Market, he said the bond market did better than the equity market last year.
He said the bond market was dominated by local investors, saying “This is a good sign for the market and the economy.”
He said domestic investors on the GSE constituted 51 per cent while foreign investors stood at 49 per cent.
Mr Afedzie said the objective of the GSE was to improve corporate bond issues from the currently 11 to 36 within five years.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
