Ghana Stock Exchange: Domestic investors hits 13% in first quarter

• Statistics from the Ghana Stock Exchange has shown that domestic investors accounted for 13% in first quarter

• He said most of the investors are funds tasked with investing in frontier and emerging markets

• The data reveal that domestic investors bought a total of 24.5 million shares, and sold 14.1 million shares during the time-frame

Head of Research at Databank, Alex Boahen has stated that it is not novel to see domestic investors being outpaced by their foreign counterparts, particularly in frontier and emerging markets, following the trend which appears to be on the ascendancy in recent times.

According to Statistics from the Databank, trading by local investors amounted to 13% of trading activities for the first quarter of the year on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GES).

Mr Boahen stated that the recent decline in domestic investor participation from what has been the observed historical range of 30 to 40 percent can, in part, be attributed to a better appreciation of the market by investors from more robust economies.

“It is because most of these investors are funds tasked with investing in frontier and emerging markets, and have access to better tools of assessment coupled with years of experience,” he said

The figure represents a two percentage points rise over the approximately 11% recorded during the corresponding period of 2020. Consequently, the activities of foreign investors saw a marginal dip from 89% last year to 87% this year, with total trades amounting to 303 million for the quarter.

The data reveal that domestic investors bought a total of 24.5 million shares, and sold 14.1 million shares during the time-frame. This represented a 129.26% rise – from 16.8 million in quarter one of last year to this year’s 38.6 million during the period under consideration.

This is consistent with the general improvement in activities recorded on the market from the final quarter of 2020.