Mixed, though still muted, trading on the Accra bourse was the GSE All-Share index fall by .17 to 819.14. Nevertheless, the Index closed the week higher than the previous week for the second time in a month, a temporary arrest in a continuous decline since the end of March.
Sales of 304,200 shares in SSB Ltd brought total turnover for the week in the stock to 895,000 shares. Interestingly, the GSE reports a decline in Non-Resident Foreign holdings in the company, so the sellers appear to be foreigners and the buyers are domestic. According to recent press releases, regulations concerning the proportion of funds that insurance and pension funds can hold in equities are being eased, which may account for some of these domestic purchases.
Standard Chartered Bank declined 50 cedis to 23,900 on a parcel of 200 shares, while Ghana Commercial Bank saw a trade of 10,200 shares at 1000 cedis.
Guinness Ghana Ltd was the market's second gainer, up 5 cedis to 935 on volume of 10,700 shares. Accra Brewery Ltd was not traded at 650 cedis, while Ghana Brewery Ltd saw 2000 shares traded at 1900 cedis (unchanged).
South African Breweries, the South Africa based company that owns 40% of ABL and is now listed on the London Stock Exchange - shortly to become a constituent of the FT-SE Index, reported profits up 9% in dollar terms on strong sales. SAB controls 98% of beer sales in its home market, so is reliant on foreign growth and expansion for continuing profits growth. Market talk associates the company with purchase of a Spanish brewer.
The final share price movement was a decline of 10 cedis in Fan Milk Ltd to 1250 cedis on turnover of 36,100 shares.
Ashanti Goldfields has issued over 427,000 shares as "scrip dividend" to shareholders who are taking their dividend as new shares instead of cash. It appears that the company may have released these shares from Treasury instead of creating new shares, because recent reports of share purchases (mainly on the Zimbabwe exchange where the shares continue to trade at a discount even to the Accra price) show the shares held in treasury are well down on the level last year. The company has been offering a commission-free dealing facility to buy in small shareholders in Accra, but few shareholders appear to have taken advantage. Just 10 shares were traded on Friday at 18,700 cedis.
Thirteen issues were traded in the session, with aggregate turnover reaching 366,110 shares. The "optimism index" declined to 3. Shares offered slipped to 3.14m while shares bid also declined to 1.37m.
There were no trades in the bond market.
