GSE Extends Stellar Run Into October as Composite Index Hits 63% YTD Return

The Ghana Stock Exchange maintained its remarkable 2026 rally through October, closing the month with the GSE Composite Index up 63.08% year-to-date and the GSE Financial Stock Index returning 58.98%, as trading activity surged across both equities and fixed income markets.

Trading volume for October reached 68,622,135 shares valued at GH¢345,231,828.97, representing year-on-year increases of 55.52% and 58.94% respectively. The market recorded 88,630 transactions during the month, a 59.07% jump compared with October 2025.

The performance extends a year of extraordinary gains for the GSE, which has ranked among the world's best-performing equity markets in 2026. By May, Bloomberg data had placed Ghana's market second only to South Korea globally, with the GSE Composite Index delivering a 63.4% return in local currency terms . President John Dramani Mahama cited those figures at the London Stock Exchange, attributing the rally to disciplined macroeconomic reform that brought inflation down from a peak of 54.1% in 2022 to single digits .

The Year-to-Date Picture

Cumulative volume for the first ten months of 2026 reached 1,124,927,571 shares valued at GH¢5,684,813,419.12, representing increases of 74.37% in volume and 73.66% in value compared with the same period last year.

The GSE Composite Index closed October at 14,302.27 points, having gained 1.38% in the final week of the month, driven largely by telecommunications giant MTN Ghana . The index has since pulled back modestly to around 14,246 points as of late October, according to Trading Economics data, though it remains up more than 70% year-on-year .

October's Winners and Losers

Thirteen stocks recorded price gains for the month, led by Cocoa Processing Company, which surged 35.71%. Meridian Marshalls Holdings followed with a 16.67% gain, while Enterprise Group rose 14.29% and TotalEnergies Marketing Ghana added 13.22%. AngloGold Ashanti Depositary Shares gained 9.52%, CalBank rose 5.71%, and GCB Bank added 5.20%. SIC Insurance and HORDS each gained 4.17%, while Scancom (MTN Ghana) rose 3.85%. Intravenous Infusions, Access Bank Ghana, and Kasapreko posted marginal gains.

Twelve stocks declined during the month. Dannex Ayrton Starwin led the losers with a 19.13% drop, followed by Digicut Production & Advertising at -17.02% and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated at -16.76%. Societe Generale Ghana fell 10.62%, while Benso Palm Plantation shed 6.67%. Clydestone Ghana declined 3.75%, Ghana Oil Company lost 2.83%, and Unilever Ghana fell 1.25%. Guinness Ghana Breweries, Fan Milk, Standard Chartered Bank, and Ecobank Ghana recorded marginal declines.

Fixed Income Market Surges

The Ghana Fixed Income Market also posted strong October figures, with volume traded reaching 48.13 billion, an increase of 65.25% compared with the same period last year. Year-to-date volume of 385.9 billion was 80.23% higher than the 214.13 billion traded over the same period in 2025.

The fixed income market has been reshaped this year by the dominance of restructured bonds from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, which account for an estimated 50 to 65 percent of daily market turnover. Total GFIM trading volume reached GH¢337.79 billion in the first nine months of 2026, already exceeding every full-year total since the market began operations in 2015 .

What's Driving the Rally

The GSE's performance has been underpinned by a broader macroeconomic turnaround. Inflation has fallen sharply from its crisis-era peak, the cedi has stabilised with support from GoldBod's foreign exchange interventions, and the Bank of Ghana has maintained an easing bias that has lowered the cost of capital.

Market capitalisation stood at GH¢271.26 billion as of mid-October, reflecting the combined effect of price appreciation and new listings . The government has signalled intentions to deepen the market further through listings of state-owned enterprises and the development of new financial instruments, including derivatives and asset-backed securities .

For investors, the question as 2026 draws to a close is whether the rally has room to run. The GSE Composite Index remains below its all-time high of 16,107 points reached in March 2026, suggesting some consolidation has already occurred . But with earnings forecast to grow and the macroeconomic backdrop more stable than at any point in the past four years, the market's fundamentals remain supportive.

Key Figures:

· GSE Composite Index YTD: +63.08%

· GSE Financial Stock Index YTD: +58.98%

· October volume: 68,622,135 shares (up 55.52% YoY)

· October value: GH¢345,231,828.97 (up 58.94% YoY)

· YTD volume: 1,124,927,571 shares (up 74.37%)

· YTD value: GH¢5,684,813,419.12 (up 73.66%)

· GFIM October volume: 48.13 billion (up 65.25% YoY)

· GFIM YTD volume: 385.9 billion (up 80.23%).