At the mid-way point of the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals, the appropriate ranking of the various teams are best gleaned. The FIFA system of ranking teams is clearly flawed, with some of the top teams booted from the competition at a very early stage and others that were low on the list ending up in the 16 to contest the quarter finals. The get a better picture of what is likely to be a better ranking, 
IC Insider decided to use the data up to the mid-way point to rank the teams and arrive at the IC TOP 10. The TOP 10 rankings are listed in the accompanying table and shows the FIFA June ranking for comparison purposes. The winner for this year’s World Cup seems set to come from within the top 6 but Columbia appears the weakest of the lot but could well go far.
FIFA number 1 team Spain won just one match after they were eliminated from this year’s World Cup finals, the number 10 team, England never even won a match. The number 9 ranked team, Italy, managed just one win and bowed out of the tournament at the end of the preliminary round. The number 4th ranked team Portugal is also out of the top 16. The 28th team Costa Rica won all their matches against FIFA’s 7th, 9th and 10th ranked teams. The team that was ranked at 44, Nigeria, is in the top 16. Korea Republic was ranked at 57 did better than many ranked above them and so is the case with Iran that was ranked at 43, Ghana was ranked at 37 and is out of the top 16 but ended up at 23 based on IC Insider’s ranking.
World Cup IC TOP 10 teams
FIFA incredible ranking system left wanting
The world cup finals are making a mockery out of FIFA ranking system for its members. For years FIFA has been using a system of moving nations up and down the ranking ladder based on results of games played. Unless there are regular interchange of teams globally so that there is a good comparison that can be done internationally, the ranking system is likely to be flawed which is exactly what the June rankings and the world cup outcomes indicate. Commentators have been caught out as well as they have in many cases limited information to compare one team with another. The results many have been confounded by the results of world cup 2014.
FIFA number 1 team Spain won just one match but only after they were eliminated from this year’s world cup finals, the number 10 team England never even won a match, their no 9 ranked team managed just one win and bowed out of the tournament at the end of the preliminary round. The number 4th ranked team Portugal is in with a chance of staying in the top 16 but may well not make it.
The 28th team Costa Rica won all their matches against the 7th, 9th and 10th ranked teams, the team that was ranked at 44 is in the top 16. Korea Republic that was ranked at 57 did better than many ranked above them and so is the case with Iran that was ranked at 43, Ghana was ranked at 37 and is close to being in the top 16.
Something must be terrible wrong with a system that gets the ranking so wrong. FIFA needs to revisit this system if it to have credibility as the present system has little. But this is not the only thing that FIFA a body of mostly well aged men control. Cricket has moved to let technology help in determining the accuracy of developments during a cricket match, tennis has done so for years but FIFA has refused to move into the modern era except belated for goal post technology. The present series and past ones have had so many bad calls that the time has long gone for football to move fully into the modern world and let technology assists the referees on the field.
Ghana stocks up for week
strong>Stocks on the Ghana Stock Exchange ended the week higher than at the close of the previous week but the week closed with only 4 stocks rising to 9 declining. 11.4 million shares traded during the week, with Monday enjoying the highest volume with 8.1 million units and Friday with 1.8 million units.
The GSE Composite Index closed the week higher at 2,358.73 compared with 2,362.67, the Ghana Stock exchange financial services index closed at 2,099.80 up from 2,066.58. For the year to date the GSE Composite Index is up 9.94 percent and the GSE financial index 17.5 percent.
Enterprise Group lost 30 percent during the week to close at GH¢1.85, Ghana Oil Company gained 11 percent and HFC Bank 10 percent.
GSE: 8 up 11 down for week
Friday, 14th March 2014 | The Ghana Stock Market closed down for the third consecutive week this year with the GSE Composite index shedding 16.11 to close at 2,403.27. The GSE financial stock index, which closed down by 33.91 to 2,168.26 on the 28th February, has closed down 20 .77 points since then to land at 2,147.49. For the past week, 8 stocks advanced and 11 declined.
The recent decline has not dented the year-to-date gains with GSE Composite Index up 12.03 percent for the first 2 months of the year and the GSE financial stock index gaining 20.20 percent. The softer market comes against a background of slippage in the foreign exchange rate for the Ghana currency, which is down by 15 percent in value since the start of the year with the rate reaching GH¢ 2.552 at the end of the week compared with GH¢2.1616 to US$1. Also, there has been rising interest rates with the 91 T-bill rate for the auction on 14th March coming out at 22.8927% up from 19.2236% at the end of December 2013. The inflation rate remains at elevated levels with the annual (year-on-year) inflation rate to February 2014 at 14.0%.
Volumes were at 1.34 million units in the just concluded week, which is down from 2.7 million traded for the week ended March 7th. In February, 5.2 million traded in the first week, 3.6 million units for the second week, followed by 2,676,472 units in week three and just over 1 million units in the last week.
Main Advances | The stocks gaining most for the week include Aluworks up 20 percent; Cal Bank up 15 percent and Eco Bank up 5 percent.
Main declines | At the end of the week. the stocks that declined most include Benso Oil Palm Plantation that fell by 5 percent; Produce Buying Company down by 6 percent; Societe Generale Ghana a fall of 8 percent and Trust Bank down 17 percent.
GSE: Ghana stocks close up
Friday, 21st February 2014 | The Ghana Stock Exchange closed moderately up for the week as 9 stocks closed the week with gains versus 6 that declined. The GSE Composite Index rose 8.77 points to close at 2,439.20 and the GSE Financial services index rose 22.18 points to close at 2202.17.
Major movers | At the end of the week, Enterprise Group was up 11 percent on top of a 9 percent increase the week before to close at GH(¢)2.25; Ecobank Transnational Incorporation up 5 percent, closing at GH(¢)0.22; HFC Bank gained 8 percent to close at GH(¢)1.09 to add to the 7 percent gain in the prior week; Societe Generale Ghana gained 17 percent to close at GH(¢)1.18 or 22 percent over the prior week; and Total Petroleum up 4 percent to close at GH(¢)5.25.
Losers | Those that lost value this week are Aluworks down 17 percent to close at GH(¢)0.05, the stock gained 20 percent in the previous week; Cal Bank 3 percent, closing at GH(¢)1.01; Ghana Commercial Bank 4 percent and ended down at GH(¢)4.45 and Guinness Ghana Breweries 3 percent decrease to GH(¢)6.
During the week, 2,676,472 shares changed hands compared with 3,597,617 shares the previous week.
Ghana financials up 21%
Wednesday, Feb 5th 2014 | Many stock markets would be pleased to record a gain of 21 percent in a year, but this is what the financial index for the Ghana Stock Exchange has done in just over a month.
Two stocks are kicking up a storm as the GSE financial stock index climbed 20.97 percent since the start of the year. The index gained 4 percent today as it climbed by 80.42 to end at 2,161.30 from 2,080.88 on close on Tuesday.
The GSE Composite index rose by 58.58 points at the end of today’s trading to 2,416.52, up 2.5 percent on the day. On Tuesday, the index closed at 2,357.95. Overall, the GSE index is up a more moderate 12.65 percent for the year than that of the financials. On Tuesday, the main index was up by 40.20 points or 1.7 percent.
In today’s trading, 5 stocks recorded gains versus 5 on Tuesday and only one declined on Wednesday to two on Tuesday.
Standard Chartered Bank Ghana put in another strong performance with GH(¢)1.50 gain to close at GH(¢)20.50 an increase of 8.5 percent. On Tuesday the price moved up by GH(¢)1.06 to close at GH(¢)19.
On Wednesday, Ecobank Ghana put on GH(¢)0.30 to end at GH(¢)7.50 for a gain of 4.2 percent. On Tuesday, the bank closed at $7.20 after posting a GH(¢)0.30 gain. New Gold Issuer dropped GH(¢)3.13 to close at GH(¢)23 on Tuesday.
Related posts | GSE: Ghana continues bullish move
Banks push Ghana market up
Monday, 4th February 2014 | When the Ghana stock market closed last Friday, the Financial sector index was up to 1,940.23 points compared with the 2013 year end close of 1,786.60 for an 8.6 percent gain in just the first month of the New Year, but at the end of Monday’s trading, it jumped 86.87 points to 2,027.10 or 4.3 percent and is now up 13.46 percent
The one-day leap was fuelled by Ecobank Ghana gaining 8 percent to close at GH(¢)7.01 and Standard Chartered Bank Ghana up 9.2 percent to close at GH(¢)18.
The Ghana composite market index that gained 5.14 percent at the close on Friday at 2,255.52 up from 2,145.20 at the start of the year, jumped by 62.22 points or 2.7 percent on Monday to end at 2,317.74 for an 8.04 percent gain from the start of the year.
There was trading in only 177,620 shares at the end of trading on Monday.
The big movers for the year to date are Ecobank Ghana up 25 percent; Ecobank Transnational Incorporation gained 21 percent and Standard Chartered Bank Ghana 20 percent. The big losers are Mechanical Lloyd Company down 8 percent; Pz Cussons Ghana 14 percent and Trust Bank lost 14 percent.
Ghana financials up 8.6% in 2014
Friday, 31 January 2014 | When the Ghana Stock market closed on Friday, the financial sector index was up to 1940.23 points compared with the yearend close of 1786.60 for an 8.6 percent gain in just one month into the New Year. The Ghana composite market index gained 5.14 percent for the same period, closing at 2,255.52 up from 2,145.2. Year-to-date, 9 stocks gained and 7 declined.
The big movers so far are Ecobank Ghana up 14 percent, Ecobank Transnational Incorporation gained 21 percent and Standard Chartered Bank Ghana 10 percent. The big losers are Mechanical Lloyd Company down 8 percent, Pz Cussons Ghana 14 percent and Trust Bank lost 14 percent.
During the past week, 8 stocks rose and only one declined as the indices gained 1.6 percent for the overall market and the financials gained 2.6 percent up from the 1,891.66 on the 24th of January.
Advancing stocks | At the end of the week, Ecobank Ghana gained 6 percent, Mechanical Lloyd Company 6 percent, Cal Bank gained 2 percent, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana 5 percent, Enterprise Group gained 4 percent.
There was trading in 8,249,233 shares which is significantly up from the 1,960,344 units traded last week.
GSE continues up
Friday, 24th January 2014 | The Ghana stock market continues on its merry way upwards during the past week with the GSE Composite index climbing to close the week at 2218.23 up from 2,186.94 at the end of the prior week. The financial index closed at 1,891.66 up from 1,847.22 from Friday January 10th.
There were 6 stocks trading that recorded gains to 5 that fell in the past week compared with 6 gaining (updated) and 7 falling in price from the week ending January 10. The market traded only 1,960,344 shares down from 4,785,965 shares during the previous week. At the end of the week, there were 18 bids on stocks in the market, up from 16 the week before but offers increased to 20 from 17.
Advancing stocks | At the end of the week Cal Bank gained 2 percent; Ecobank Transnational Incorporation gained 6 percent; Enterprise Group gained 4 percent; Standard Chartered Bank Ghana gained 4 percent.
Declining stocks | Trust Bank lost 14 percent and PZ Cussons lost 10 percent.
GSE: Ghana continues bullish move
Friday, 10th January 2014 | The year may have changed but that is not yet visible in the movement of stock prices on the Ghana Stock exchange.
The GSE Composite Index closed the week at 2,184.82 up from 2,152.54 at the end of the prior week for a gain of 32.28 points and the financial index closed at 1,844.44, up by 43.02 points from 1,801.42, a 3.5 percent gain so far for 2014.
Advancing stocks overwhelmed declining ones during the week by a 2:1 ratio with 8 gaining and 4 falling in price, representing an improvement over last week’s performance of 6 advancing to 3 declining.
Trading for the week accounted for 2,597,827 units up from 1,488,967 units last week. At the end of the week, there were 19 bids, up from 17 the week before, and offers climbed to 26 from 19. The absence of bids for half of the market is an indication of weakness. While the number of bids have grown over the last four weeks, it shows that only a fraction of the market is performing and that is mainly the financials. Additionally, several of the companies listed have not traded for more than six months and the absence of bids suggests that had these stocks been more liquid, the main market index may not have grown as much as it did in 2013.
Advancing stocks | Ayrton Drugs Manufacturing gained 6 percent in trading for the week; Ecobank Transnational Incorporation gained 20 percent during the week and is up 26 percent for the year to date; Starwin Products was up 33 percent but is flat for the year to date.
Declining stocks | Produce Buying Company lost 6 percent; UT Bank lost 2 percent.
