A single stake sale by Access Bank Ghana’s parent company accounted for three quarters of turnover value on the Ghana Stock Exchange last week, exchange data show.
The concentration matters because it inflates several of the week’s headline numbers well beyond what ordinary trading would produce, a distinction easy to miss in a summary that only shows totals. Exchange records for the week of July 13 to 17 show turnover value jumping 452 percent to GHS370.67 million from GHS67.14 million the previous week, while volume rose 46.5 percent to 30.24 million shares. Nearly all of that jump traces to ACCESS, the ticker for Access Bank Ghana, which alone carried GHS277.87 million in value and 12.08 million shares for the week, more than any other stock traded on the exchange.
That volume lines up closely with a transaction Access Bank PLC, the Nigerian parent company, disclosed this week: the sale of 12,085,318 ordinary shares in its Ghanaian subsidiary, cutting the parent’s stake by 7.44 percent. The exchange’s daily breakdown places the bulk of the week’s trading on Monday, July 13, when volume hit 14.99 million shares worth GHS289.95 million, though the bank’s own statement on the sale cited July 15. Managing Director Pearl Nkrumah said the sale reflected a commitment to “deepening local ownership and liquidity in our shares.” IC Securities Ghana Ltd served as adviser on the deal, and the bank said pension funds, institutional investors and high net worth individuals took up the shares.
Strip out that single trade and the week looks far calmer. Market capitalization rose a modest 0.16 percent to GHS287.57 billion, the GSE Composite Index gained 0.89 percent to close at 14,937.92 points, and the GSE Financial Stocks Index added 0.30 percent to reach 8,265.36. Both indices remain sharply higher for the year, up 70.32 percent and 77.86 percent respectively since January.
The Access Bank trade also reshaped the week’s sector rankings. Finance took 79.46 percent of total value traded and just over half of volume, figures that would look very different without one transaction. ICT ranked second at GHS62.56 million, most of it tied to MTN Ghana, which traded GHS62.49 million on its own during the week.
Beyond the Access Bank trade, several smaller stocks posted large percentage swings. Intravenous Infusions Limited gained 50 percent for the week to close at GHS0.42, extending a 740 percent advance since January, the steepest year to date gain among tracked movers. Hords Limited rose 28.57 percent and CLYD climbed 14.61 percent. On the losing side, Ecobank Ghana fell 5.05 percent and Standard Chartered Bank dropped 1.24 percent, the two weakest performers on the week’s list of market movers.
