General News of Friday, 25 February 2005

Source: GNA

GSE in steep decline

Accra, Feb. 25, GNA - The main benchmark of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) reeled under heavy losses by four equities in trading on Friday as the bourse continued to struggle to find its feet. Aluworks Limited, British American Tobacco, Fan Milk Limited and Stanchart were the heavy losers on a day that saw only Benso Oil Palm Limited gaining.

The GSE All-Share Index, the main stock index, slumped again by 55.31 points to 6,740.30 points.

Change for the year slipped deeper into the red at -0.86 per cent from -0.04 per cent on Wednesday.

Shares traded closed slightly better at 201,100 from Wednesday's figure of 173,300.

Stanchart, the second highest priced equity, plummeted by 5,000 cedis at 165,000 cedis; Fan Milk Limited was 1,000 cedis poorer at 18,000 cedis; British American Tobacco lost 500 cedis at 4,500 cedis while Aluworks was down by 500 cedis at 6,500 cedis.

The only gainer, Benso Oil Palm Plantation, gained 350 cedis at 7,500 cedis.

Market capitalisation closed lower at 97,456.83 billion cedis from Wednesday's close of 97,607.82 billion cedis.

The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:

ABL 1,480 AGA 300,000 AADs 3,000

ALW 6,500 -500

BAT 4,500 -500

BOPP 7,500 +350

CAL 3,400 CFAO 255 CLYD 1,300 CMLT 1,200 CPC 1,000 EIC 8,000

FML 18,000 -1,000

GBL 1,600 GCB 13,010 GGL 12,500 HFC 9,500 MGL 275 MLC 3,000 MOGL 39,010 PAF 800 PBC 3,600 PZ 5,350

SCB 165,000 -5,000

SPL 750 SPPC 390 SG-SSB 27,000 SWL 290 TBL 31,000 UNIL 20,000