The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) is showing signs of expansion as its Financial Stocks Index (GSE-FSI) experienced a modest upswing.

Buoyed by the encouraging performance of some financial stocks, the GSE-FSI returned about 5 percent for the first quarter of 2024, compared to the 12 percent it lost during the same period last year.

Compared to the benchmark market-wide Composite Index (GSE-CI), which achieved 10.41 percent in 2024 compared to 12.3 percent last year at the same time, the GSE-FSI has performed better this year.

For the top five companies out of the 13 GSE-listed financial companies involved in the trading, CAL Bank led the way recording the highest volume of shares traded with 799,300 shares changing hands, followed by Ecobank Transnational with 313, 794 shares, Republic Bank Ghana with 82,109 shares, Société Générale with 31,450 and Access Bank with 12,041 shares.

In terms of share prices, Cal Bank witnessed a 12.5% decrease in its share price, closing at GHS 0.42 per share.

Following closely was Ecobank Transnational, which maintained its share price at 0.15%; Republic Bank Ghana also maintained its share price at 0.48; Société Générale saw a 47.7 percent decrease in its share price, closing at 0.82, and Access Bank saw an impressive 30 percent rise in share price, closing at GHC 4.45 per share.

According to a market analyst, the development is not surprising owing to several factors – including the fast recovery in the profitability of most of the banks.

This comes as the released unaudited results for many banks on the local bourse covering the period under review show an average increase in profit of about 13 percent.

“We have seen some encouraging performance so far in the first quarter of 2024, this is as a result of the recovery in their profitability.

“In actual fact, the financial sector profitability is recovering faster than we had initially expected. Seeing the banks posting some good numbers in the Q1 results that have been coming through, so far.

“Interestingly, the higher the Treasury Bill Rate has been a tail win for bankers’ profitability or the financial sector profitability. And that is the reason why we are seeing the financial stock also doing quite well,” he remarked.