Business News of Wednesday, 1 November 2000

Source: GNA

Ghana Stock Exchange slides after heavy PZ loss

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) All-Share Index on Monday dropped 0.79 points to open the week at 863.84 points. The index, which gained 5.87 points on Friday, declined to 864 points after a 100-cedi loss by Patterson Zochonis (PZ) and a 95-cedi loss by Aluworks (ALW) could not prevent the slide.

Demand firmed at 114 shares while shares traded 106,800. Investors quoted and bid for only seven equities - ALW, CFAO, Ghana Commercial Bank, Guinness Ghana, PZ, SSB Bank and Unilever. ALW sold 97,000 shares, followed by GCB with 8,000 and PZ with 1,000. SSB sold 600 and UNIL sold 200 shares.

Bids closed trading last Friday at 93,800 and 60,900 shares changed hands. However, shares offered fell from 1.9 million to 1,017,780 on Monday. Market capitalisation opened the week lower by a small margin to 3,645.25 billion cedis as against 3,646.73 billion cedis registered at the previous session.

In the broader market, there were two price changes - one gain and one loss. PZ lost 100 cedis to close at 500 cedis and ALW continued the gaining spree by making 95 cedis at 4,200 cedis.

Two equities registered positive pressures, 13 recorded negative pressures, three had no pressures and there were no quotes for two equities.