Ghana stocks gain 19.5% year-to-date to emerge world best in January as Nigeria’s remain top three

The Ghana Stock Exchange Composite Index has gained 19.5 percent year-to-date in dollar terms, beating Nigeria, smattering from a very good performance in 2017 to the third place at 16.3 percent, according to Bloomberg report on benchmarks tracked by it.

The country’s benchmark index thus sits atop the world with 19.5 percent YTD growth, followed by Lithuania’s OMX Vilnius index at 16.9 percent and Nigeria’s NSEASI at 16.3 percent. Other top performing stock exchanges indexes include China’s Hang Seng Enterprise Index (14.3%) and Brazil’s Ibovespa Index (14.2%).

According to Bloomberg, the Ghanaian bourse performance could be traced to World Bank’s optimism about prospects for Ghana’s economy, which has raised positive sentiments and proved a tonic for the Accra-traded stocks.

“We can’t discount the sentiment factor, the optimism in the market in terms of Ghana being one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa,” Karl Ocran, head of investments at Accra-based Frontline Capital Advisors, told Bloomberg.

Investors are attracted by strong economic growth and stabilizing inflation. “Valuations on the market are still cheap,” he is reported to have said.

Ghana’s economy is expected to grow 6.8 percent this year according to the ministry of financial forecasts, while the central bank foresees inflation in a band of 6 percent to 10 percent by the end of the year, down from 11.8 percent in December.

The Nigerian NSEASI topped world indexes in 2017 in terms of growth and has remained in the top three year-to-date. Analysts who spoke to businessamlive said the growth trend would remain in the short to medium term but could be slightly affected by the 2019 general election scheduled for the first quarter of the year.

Analysts have debated the impact of the election with most calling for no fears, saying the impact would be immaterial.

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