Mechanical Lloyd best stock in December 2014

Mechanical Lloyd emerged the best performing stock on the Ghana Stock Exchange in the month of December last year.

The BMW dealer led 9 other gainers having increased in value by 12% in December.

Its share price was up by 3 pesewas from 25 pesewas to 28pesewas.

5 of the 10 gainers in December were financial stocks, while 3 are into manufacturing.

11 companies also recorded declines. 4 of them were financial stocks, while 5 are in the manufacturing sector.

HFC Bank, followed Mechanical Lloyd to place as the second best performing stock on the bourse in December.

Following the ruling on the landmark case on its mandatory takeover, the share price of HFC shot up by about 11%.

It increased by 15 pesewas to close the month at 1 cedi 50pesewas.

Another bank, Societe-General Ghana placed 3rd with a 7.5 percent appreciation of its share price. It closed the year at exactly 1 cedi.

Insurance firm, Enterprise Ghana ranked 4th after an 11pesewas increase in share price resulted in an appreciation of the share value by about 7%. It closed the month at 1 cedi 75 pesewas.

Oil marketing firm, GOIL occupied the 5th slot with a 6% increase in share price. Increasing by 6 pesewas it closed at 1 cedi 5pesewas.

The rest of the gainers were Ayton Drugs, UT Bank with about 4% gain, Fanmilk and Ecobank Ghana which both increased by about 3% and Benso Oil Palm Plantation which increased a little below 2%.

On the other hand, Aluminium Company- Aluworks led the losers with a whopping 50% slam in share price.

Aluworks lost 2 pesewas off its share price of 4 pesewas it started the month of December with.

It was followed by African Champion Industries and Pharmaceutical firm, Starwin, both lost just a pesewa and declined by about 33%. Their share prices were valued at 2 pesewas at the end of December.

PZ Cussons followed with a 21% decline in share price after losing 8pesewas.

Its share price was valued at 30pesewas at the close of the month of December.

The rest of the decliners were PBC, Ecobank transnational Incorporated, Cal bank, Tullow Oil, GCB Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Unilever.

Some 14 companies however maintained their share prices.

They include Total Petroleum, SIC, Mega Africa Capital, Camelot, Clydestone, Guinness Ghana Brewery ltd among others.

By: Anim Kwaku Boadu/citifmonline.com/Ghana