Accra, July 10, GNA - The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) in the last six months recorded a tremendous performance ranking it as one of three most profitable in Africa.

Presenting the half-year stock market review in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Kinglsey S. Yamoah, Managing Director of the GSE, said the Management was keen on positioning the Exchange as an attractive investment avenue in the country.

The All-Share Index almost doubled to 49.41 from January to June this year as compared to 28.01 per cent for the same period last year. Indeed the Index moved from 1,395.31 points at the beginning of January to 2,084.72 points in June.

The gain in the index, even at half-year rate, was above the prevailing annual interest equivalent on 91-day treasury bills of 35.27 per cent at end June 2003. The gain was again above the June 2003, 12-month inflation rate of 29.80 per cent as well as the 45.96 index gain recorded for the whole of 2002.

He said market capitalization at the end of the period was 8.652 billion cedis as against the 4.429 billion cedis while percentage increase in market capitalization was fixed at 39.9 per cent. The figure for the same time last year was a low of 13.5 per cent.

He attributed the increase to the rise in share prices of nearly all the listed equities.

Mr Yamoah singled out the listing of Cocoa Processing Company as contributing a huge 538 billion cedis of total increase in market capitalization from 861.48 million issued shares in February this year. The CFAO and the Ashanti Goldfield's additional listings contributed 10 billion cedis and 62 billion cedis, respectively, to the change in capitalization. Market capitalization went up by just 13.4 per cent to 4.429 billion cedis in the first-half of last year.

Mr Yamoah said volume of shares traded was 51.38 million, raking in 256.0 billion cedis. Volume of shares traded from January to June last year was 32.46 per cent and earned only 59.30 billion cedis.

The value of bonds traded by corporate members closed at the period at 529,000 dollars compared to the 249,750 dollars posted last year. Earnings from the Government of Ghana Index Linked Bonds (GGILBS) dropped, fetching a meagre 2.75 billion cedis against the 22.22 billion cedis for last year.

Mr Yamoah explained the situation to the recent increase in inflation due mainly to the increase in petroleum prices, which has made treasury bills more attractive.

The major increase in the volume and value of shares was the arrival of Societe General Group into SSB Bank operations where they bought controlling interest.