WEEKLY MARKET WATCH SIC-FSL INVESTMENT+ RESEARCH| MARKET REVIEWS|

15th January, 2015

STOCK MARKET PROFIT-TAKING SLOWS DOWN MARKET PERFORMANCE INDICATORS WEEK OPEN WEEK END CHANGE Despite, the excitement that characterized market activities last week, performance of the bourse dipped on the back of Market Capitalization profit-taking by shareholders. Shares of Ecobank (GH¢'million) 64,229.12 63,654.84 -0.89% Market Capitalization Transnational Incorporated (ETI), Cocoa Processing Company (US$'million) 20,014.06 19,779.64 -1.17% (CPC), UT Bank (UTB), GCB Bank (GCB), Limited (EBG) and SIC Insurance Company Limited (SIC) were Volume traded (shares) 573,274.00 4,233,537.00 638.48% responsible for last week’s sluggish performance. Value Traded (GH¢) 2,482,296.35 2,251,183.89 -9.31% In effect, benchmark indices turned southward, as the yield on Value Traded (US$) 773,493.81 699,516.47 -9.56% the GSE-Composite Index dipped by 1.02% to settle at an Table 1: Market Summary annual drop of 1.44%. Similarly, the GSE Financial Stock INDEX ANALYSIS Index (GSE-FSI) which tracks the performance of financial stocks fell by 0.99% to close at a drop of 1.66% from INDICATORS Closing Week YTD beginning of year to-date. Level Change CHANGE The value of all listed companies (market capitalization) also GSE Composite Index 2,228.48 -1.85% 0.42% went down by 0.89% to settle at GH¢63.65 billion from the

GSE Financial Stocks Index 2,206.33 -2.32% 0.67% previous GH¢64.23 billion, which is is attributable to the Table 2: Key Stock Market Indices marginal depreciations of the local currency during the period under review.

LIQUIDITY

Market activities, comparatively, were better than the week before, due to the 3.00 million block trade recorded by SIC Insurance Company Limited during the week. This supported the 638.48% jump in shares traded during the week compared to the

week before. Nonetheless, corresponding value traded declined by 9.31% to GH¢2.25 million due to profit-taking with most

shareholders trading their shares at a discount.

In all, a total of 4.23 million shares exchanged hands among the twenty-three (23) active stocks on the market.. SIC Insurance

Company Limited (SIC) emerged the most active stock of the week after contributing 70.95% of the total shares traded and also Fig 1: Year -to-date returns accounted for GH¢1.05 million of the total value traded,

representing 46.70%.

MARKET MOVERS

Poor economic sentiment pulls CPC price further down Some shareholders of Cocoa Processing Company Limited (CPC) STOCK Wk Open Wk End Change % TICKER change were somehow relieved last week after they successfully relinquished some of their holdings in the company. Aside CPC’s non- CAL 1.02 1.03 0.01 0.98% performing status, the company made GH¢38.57 million loss in Table 3: Gainers for the week Q3’14 to further dent investor interest in the stock as they willingly accepted the GH¢0.01 ask price on the market last week.

Consequently, CPC closed trading at GH¢0.01 a share last week. It STOCK Wk Open Wk End Change % TICKER change is unclear what the future holds for CPC as investors adopt a wait- and-see attitude towards the chocolate manufacturing company. CPC 0.02 0.01 -0.01 -50.00%

Investors sell UTB’s shares… EBG 7.58 7.35 -0.23 -3.03%

Shareholders of UT Bank dumped portion of their holdings in UTB EGL 1.74 1.70 -0.04 -2.30% shares last week, due to decline in investor appetite for the Bank’s ETI 0.27 0.25 -0.02 -7.41% shares. Although the Bank posted a decent gain of GH¢8.82 million GCB 5.71 5.52 -0.19 -3.33% net profit in Q3’14 which represented 12% increase over the same period last year, it did not seem to have an effect on investor GOIL 1.06 1.05 -0.01 -0.94% interest for the stock.. SCB 20.15 20.13 -0.02 -0.10% At a current book value (B/V) of GH¢0.30 per share, the UTB is SIC 0.36 0.35 -0.01 -2.78% reasonably underpriced at its current market price of GH¢0.22 a share. Again, the stock is technically trading at its lowest price on the UTB 0.24 0.22 -0.02 -8.33% GSE, yet still waiting to attract the attention of investors. Table 4: Laggards for the week

CORPORATE NEWS

STANDARD CHARTERED BANK LIMITED (SCB) ANNOUNCES PREFERENCE SHARES DIVIDEND PAYMENT: Management of SCB has declared a preference share dividend of GH¢0.0758 to shareholders in respect of the dividend period of six months up to March, 2015.

In view of the above, any investor who buys SCB PREF shares before Wednesday, February 25, 2015 will be entitled to the dividend payment. The dividend will be paid on Monday, March 30, 2015.

HFC BANK (GHANA) LIMITED (HFC) CANCELS EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING: Shareholders of HFC Bank was in court to seek for an interlocutory injunction against the Extraordinary General Fig 2: Top 5 most liquid equities with respect to volume traded Meeting (EGM) which was scheduled to take place on Tuesday, January 20, 2015. Management in the light aforementioned has canceled the meeting until further notice.

Stock Ticker Year Opening Closing Price @ YTD Gain/Loss (%) Price(GH¢) 15/1/2015 (GH¢) African Champion Industries Ltd. ACI 0.02 0.02 0.00% AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. AGA 37.00 37.00 0.00% Aluworks Limited ALW 0.02 0.02 0.00% Ayrton Drug Manufacturing Ltd. AYRTN 0.18 0.18 0.00% Benso Oil Palm Plantation BOPP 4.10 4.10 0.00% Cal Bank Ltd CAL 1.01 1.03 1.98% Clydestone (Ghana) Ltd. CLYD 0.03 0.03 0.00% Camelot Ghana Ltd. CMLT 0.12 0.12 0.00% Cocoa Processing Co. Ltd. CPC 0.02 0.01 -50.00% Ecobank Ghana Ltd. EBG 7.60 7.35 -3.29% Limited EGL 1.75 1.70 -2.86% Ecobank Transnational Inc. ETI 0.28 0.25 -10.71% Fan Milk Ltd. FML 5.25 5.25 8.76% Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd. GCB 5.30 5.52 4.15% Guinness Ghana Breweries Ltd. GGBL 3.20 3.20 0.00% Ghana Oil Company Limited GOIL 1.05 1.05 0.00% Golden Star Resources Ltd. GSR 2.34 2.34 0.00% Golden Web Ltd. GWEB 0.03 0.03 0.00% HFC Bank (Ghana) Ltd. HFC 1.50 1.50 0.00% Mega Africa Capital Ltd MAC 4.50 4.50 0.00% Mechanical Lloyd Co. Ltd. MLC 0.28 0.28 0.00% Pioneer Kitchenware Ltd. PKL 0.06 0.06 0.00% Produce Buying Company Ltd. PBC 0.12 0.12 0.00% PZ Cussons Ghana Ltd. PZ 0.30 0.24 -20.00% Standard Chartered Bank (GH) Ltd.* SCB 20.35 20.13 -1.08% SIC Insurance Company Ltd. SIC 0.37 0.35 -5.41% Starwin Products Ltd. SPL 0.02 0.02 0.00% Limited SOGEGH 1.00 1.06 6.00% Sam Woode Ltd. SWL 0.04 0.04 0.00% Trust Bank Ltd. (The Gambia) TBL 0.24 0.24 0.00% Total Petroleum Ghana Ltd. TOTAL 6.10 6.10 0.00% Transaction Solutions (Ghana) Ltd. TRANSOL 0.03 0.03 0.00% Tullow Oil Plc TLW 34.99 34.99 0.00% Unilever Ghana Ltd. UNIL 10.70 10.70 0.00% UT Bank UTB 0.25 0.22 -12.00% AngloGold Ashanti Depository Shares AADS 0.52 0.52 0.00% Standard Chartered Bank Preference shares SCB PREF 0.58 0.58 0.00% NewGold Exchange Traded Fund GLD 35.80 35.80 0.00%

Table 5: Performance of listed equities from year open

CEDI FAILS TO MAINTAIN ITS PREVIOUS

CURRENCY MARKET PERFORMANCE The local currency was unable to replicate the strong performance it posted the week earlier amid the report on EXCHANGE RATES BUYING SELLING YTD inflation for December 2014. CHANGE USDGHS 3.2165 3.2198 0.57%▼ According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the year-on- year inflation for December was unchanged from the 17% GBPGHS 4.8936 4.9002 1.65%▲ recorded in the month of November. The monthly change rate for December 2014 was however, 1% compared to the 0.9% EURGHS 3.7908 3.7939 2.66%▲ recorded for November 2014.

The Ghana Cedi plunged by 0.31% on the currency market Table 6: Inter-bank indicative rates after losing significantly to the British Pound followed by the American Dollar. As a result, the Cedi’s year-to-date return ▲ year-to-date appreciation declined to 0.81% from the 0.90% recorded a week earlier. ▼ year-to-date depreciation

Dollar rallies on the interbank market

Optimistic sentiment towards the Dollar continues to disfavour the Cedi on the currency market.

Subsequent to the Cedi’s depreciation last year coupled with the power cuts encountered in the country, Ghana’s projected economic growth for 2014 has been revised from 6.9% to 4.2%. This compares unfavourably with an expansion of 7.3% in 2013, whiles the Government has also cut its growth forecast for 2015 by about half, to 3.9%. The news seemed to have affected investors’ confidence in the economy, hence, investors’ choice to hold on to the Dollar as a safer haven.

A Dollar was bought at GH¢3.2165 and sold for GH¢3.2198, Fig 3: YTD performance of Pound, Dollar & Euro versus the Cedi signifying a year-to-date change of 0.57% in favour of the Dollar.

Euro loses value Pound records weighty gain The Euro lost value on the international market last week after the

The British Pound emerged the best currency last Thursday after Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced that it was abandoning the 1.20 EUR/CHF rate cap and lowering deposit rates range to gaining 1.08% on the interbank market. This marks the first significant gain the Pound has recorded this year against the between -1.25% and -0.25%. Cedi. Investors reacted with shock to the announcement as evidenced by The Pound was pegged between GH¢4.89 and GH¢4.90 last the Euro rapidly losing 40% of its value against the Swiss Franc on week compared to the previous peg of GH¢4.84 and GH¢4.85. the global front. The impact was somewhat felt on Ghana’s currency market as the

Euro lost 0.06% of its value to the Cedi, increasing its year-to- date loss from 2.60% to 2.66% on Thursday.

Alice Osei Okrah (Head) Isaac Kwasi Mensah (Analyst) Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] NB: The data in this report is Thursday on Thursday (w-o-w)