The Jamaica Stock Exchange Main Market closed on Thursday and April positively with advances on the Composite, JSE Market and Financial Indices. The market closed 16,708.18 points down on the March close, with Bank of Jamaica’s suspension of banking dividends, knocking 19,422.69 points off the All Jamaican Composite Index.
At the close, the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index increased 1,822.62 points to 399,394.72, the JSE Market Index gained 1,640.98 points to close at 364,045.96 and the JSE Financial Index rose 0.61 points to 97.97.
The market closed with 45 securities changing hands in the Main and US dollar markets with prices of 23 stocks advancing, 11 declining and 11 trading firm. The JSE Main Market activity ended with 41 securities accounting for 79,915,162 units valued at $130,493,189 in contrast to 7,206,423 units valued at $124,023,333 from 37 securities on Tuesday.
Wigton Windfarm led trading with 60 million shares for 75 percent of total volume followed by Trans Jamaican Highway, with 17 million units, for 21 percent of the day’s trade and Sagicor Select Financial Fund with 752,103 for one percent market share.
The Market closed with an average of 1,949,150 units valued $3,182,761 for each security traded, in contrast to 194,768 units valued at an average of $3,351,979 on Wednesday. 
The average volume and value for the month to date amount to 1,077,021 units valued at $3,829,201 for each security changing hands, compared to 1,033,414 units valued at $3,863,268 previously. Trading in March resulted in an average of 1,146,245 units valued at $7,550,295 for each security.
IC bid-offer Indicator│ At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows eleven stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and seven stocks closing with lower offers. The PE ratio of the market ended at 14, while the Main Market ended at 14.3 times 2020-21 earnings.
In the Main Market, Barita advanced 85 cents to finish at $53.85 with a transfer of 2,750 stock units, Caribbean Cement closed 99 cents lower at $45 with an exchange of 113,500 units, Cigarette distributors, Carreras rose 20 cents to end at $6.50 in trading 95,773 units. Eppley gained 50 cents to end at $13.50 after exchanging 4,885 units, Grace Kennedy jumped $1.80 in swapping 157,328 units to end at $57, Jamaica Producers added 50 cents to settle at $18.50, with 104,351 shares changing hands. Jamaica Stock Exchange gained $2.20 to end at $23 after trading 418,016 units, Key Insurance jumped 50 cents, pushing it to a record high to $7, with a transfer of 14,750 stock units. 
Mayberry Equities climbed $1.30 to $9.80 trading 12,100 units, MPC Caribbean Clean Energy dropped $2 to $147 after just 261 units crossed through the exchange. NCB Financial Group shed $3 in closing at $143, trading 56,094 shares, PanJam Investment closed $1.40 higher at $76.40, in exchanging 243,133 stock units, Proven Investments gained $1.90 to finish at $37, with 2,385 stock units changing hands. Sagicor Real Estate Fund lost 64 cents exchanging 20,018 units to settle at $7.11, Salada Foods climbed $2.50 to $28.50 after trading 1,900 units, Scotia Group rose $2.50 to $43.50, after transferring 54,471 stock units. Seprod picked up $1.50 to close at $45, in trading 13,743 shares and Wisynco Group lost 54 cents to end at $17.36, with 48,127 units crossing the exchange.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.
Market activity resulted in four securities changing hands, with two stocks rising, with none declining and two left unchanged. Investors exchanged 1,628,728 units valued at $25,369, in contrast to just 990,048 units valued at $72,533 on Wednesday.
Access Financial climbed $1.48 to settle at $25.98 with 1,000 shares changing hands, Blue Power decline 45 cents in trading of 7,560 units at $3.40, Caribbean Cream dipped 15 cents in trading of 999,791 units at $2. Caribbean Producers fell by 6 cents to settle at $2.70, Consolidated Bakeries climbed 4 cents and exchanged 500 shares at $1.76, Derrimon Trading closed trading of 1,000 units and gained 21 cents to end at $2.20. Dolphin Cove closed trading of 123 units and gained 22 cents to end at $7.22, Elite Diagnostic climbed 10 cents and exchanged 4,000 shares at $3.70, Everything Fresh ended trading with 100 shares, after rising 11 cents to end at 78 cents. Express Catering closed 15 cents higher at $3.25, with 2,759 stock units changing hands, Fontana closed 4 cents higher at $5.34, with 145,155 stock units trading, Fosrich closed 6 cents higher at $4, with 151,000 stock units crossing the exchange. General Accident dipped 41 cents in trading of 1,893,851 units at $4.49, GWest Corporation closed trading of 27,004 units and gained 1 cent to end at $0.89, Honey Bun ended trading with 73,032 shares, after rising 9 cents to end at $5.49. iCreate ended trading with 1,200 shares, after rising 4 cents to end at 46 cents, Indies Pharma added 1 cent and exchanged 26,749 shares at $2.36, Jamaican Teas ended market activity exchanging 129,520 shares to close at $4.04 after falling 4 cents. 
Knutsford Express ended trading with 1,450 shares, after rising 7 cents to end at $8.50, Lasco Distributors fell 12 cents in trading of 93,450 units at $2.85, Lasco Financial lost 5 cents in trading 118,782 shares to close at 2.70 cents. Limners and Bards lost 7 cents in trading of 41,463 units at $1.86, Lumber Depot declined 4 cents in trading of 257,140 units at $1.12, Mailpac Group lost 2 cents in trading of 299,127 units at $1.68. Medical Disposables fell 3 cents in trading 103,945 units at $6.45, SSL Venture exchanged 200 units and gained 16 cents to end at 90 cents, Stationery and Office Supplies closed trading of 34,800 units and rose 5 cents to end at $6.05 and tTech fell 49 cents with 500 units changing hands at $3.71.
Price movements on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange were mostly down at the close of trading on Thursday with only nine stocks trading, down from 19 previously, leading to declines in the All T&T and the Composite Indices.
Losers│ Grace Kennedy lost 1 cent transferring 150,000 shares to finish at $2.85, Trinidad & Tobago NGL closed at $16.89, after losing 1 cent in trading 6,359 stock units and West Indian Tobacco ended at $30.89, with a loss of $3.11 after exchanging 50,000 shares.
Trading concluded with 33 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 3,721,917 units valued at $8,632,508 compared to 12,280,544 units valued at $26,562,508 from 29 securities on Tuesday. Market activities ended with the prices of 12 securities rising, 19 declining and two holding firm. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 8.8 based on 2020-21 earnings.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging dropped 15 cents in the trading of 484 units at $1.65, Blue Power gained 10 cents and exchanged 30,200 units to settle at $3.85, Caribbean Assurance Brokers finished 6 cents lower at $2.19 with 15,673 units changing hands. Caribbean Cream fell 12 cents to $2.15 in the exchange of 478,724 shares, Caribbean Flavours slipped 2 cents after swapping 3,000 units to settle at $9.98, Caribbean Producers finished at $2.76 after climbing 24 cents with 574,589 units traded. Consolidated Bakeries ended 3 cents lower at $1.72 with 3,000 shares traded, Derrimon Trading added 4 cents in the exchange of 1,100 units to close at $1.99, Dolphin Cove shed 50 cents to close at $7 with 3,454 shares changing hands. Elite Diagnostic dropped 15 cents to $3.60 in the trading of 900 units, Everything Fresh swapped 113,549 shares and lost 5 cents to end at 67 cents, Express Catering fell 20 cents trading 99,779 stock units to close at $3.10. Fontana gained 1 cent to finish at $5.30 with an exchange of 63,656 units, Fosrich settled at $3.94 after slipping 1 cent and trading 1,000 shares, General Accident closed trading 8 cents lower at $4.90 with 347,579 units changing hands. Honey Bun gained 5 cents to close at $5.40 with 5,166 stock units trading, iCreate ended 3 cents lower at 42 cents with 162,858 stock units crossing the exchange, Indies Pharma gained 5 cents and swapped 5,306 units to end at $2.35. Jetcon Corporation added 2 cents to close at $1.02 with 20,300 shares changing hands, KLE Group finished 5 cents higher at $1.65 with an exchange of 6,000 units, 
Knutsford Express closed trading of 3,445 units and dropped 56 cents to end at $8.43. Lasco Distributors picked up 2 cents in exchanging 1,103 shares to close at $2.97, Lasco Financial finished $2.75 after losing 17 cents in switching ownership of 42,023 units, Lasco Manufacturing fell 10 cents to $3.80 with 27,911 shares changing hands. Limners and Bards slipped 1 cent and exchanged 8,000 shares to end at $1.93, Lumber Depot closed 3 cents higher at $1.16 with 88,633 stock units trading, MailPac Group had another significant trading day with 1,472,605 units exchanged to settle at $1.70 after losing 6 cents. Main Event dropped $1.19 to end at $3.81 with 28,442 shares trading, Medical Disposables leaped 93 cents to $6.48 with 33,957 shares traded, SSL Venture slipped 1 cent and 120 shares switched ownership to end at 74 cents and tTech climbed 22 cents to $4.20 with 991 units crossing the exchange.
The average volume and value for the month to date amount to 1,033,414 units valued at $3,863,268 for each security changing hands, compared to 1,073,044 units valued at $3,888,297 for each security traded. Trading in March resulted in an average of 1,146,245 units valued at $7,550,295 for each security.
Key Insurance raked in 95 cents to reach a record high of $6.50, with a transfer of 25,094 stock units, Mayberry Investments lost 30 cents trading 3,413 units and closed at $5.50, MPC Caribbean Clean Energy climbed $2 to $149, after swapping 420 units. NCB Financial Group recovered $8 of the recent losses to close at $146, trading 437,464 shares, PanJam Investment closed $1 lower at $75, in exchanging 317,961 shares, Proven Investments declined $2.40 to finish at $35.10, with 44,783 stock units changing hands. Scotia Group fell $2 to $41, after transferring 33,448 stock units, Seprod picked up $1.50 to close at $43.50, in trading 8,215 units and Stanley Motta gained 30 cents to end the day at $5, with 15,000 units crossing the exchange.
Market activity resulted in seven securities changing hands, with one stock rising, four declining and two left unchanged. Investors exchanged 990,048 units valued at $72,533, in contrast to just 314,331 shares valued US$4,048 on Tuesday.
Firm Trades│ Ansa Merchant Bank traded 1,168 units and closed at $36.30, Clico Investments ended at $22.50, with an exchange of 102,745 shares, Endeavour Holdings held firm at $12.51, in transferring 75 units. First Citizens Bank traded 2,797 units at $39.40, Guardian Media swapped 957 units at $6.40, Massy Holdings closed at $50, with 118 units crossing the market. NCB Financial ended at $8, in exchanging 18,000 shares, Republic Financial Holdings swapped a mere eight units at $132.65, Trinidad & Tobago NGL remained at $16.90, in trading 583 units and Unilever Caribbean was unchanged at $17.05, after 1,271 units changed hands.
At the close, the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index declined 11,964.17 on Monday, fell a further by 13,352.19 points to close at 393,321.05. The JSE Market Index dropped 12,250.06 points on top of the 10,830.61 points fall on Monday to 358,512.98 and the JSE Financial Index lost 4.24 points to 95.49. The losses pushed the year to date loss to 30 percent, for main market stocks and ahead of the Junior Market that is down by 28 percent for the year.
The Market closed with an average of 2,670,498 units valued at an average of $8,796,150 for each security traded, in contrast to 467,969 units valued at an average of $2,080,475 on Monday. The average volume and value for the month to date amount to 1,073,044 units valued at $3,888,797 for each security changing hands, compared to 996,058 units valued at $3,638,209 for each security traded. Trading in March resulted in an average of 1,146,245 units valued at $7,550,295 for each security.
Key Insurance added 35 cents to finish at a 52 weeks’ high of $5.55, after swapping 91,058 shares. Kingston Properties ended at a 52 weeks’ high of $4.50, with a loss of $1.50 after a transfer of 56,639 stock units, Mayberry Investments gained 60 cents trading 28,831 units and closed at $5.80, NCB Financial Group fell $2 to close at a 52 weeks’ high of $138, with an exchange of 276,121 shares. PanJam Investment closed 50 cents higher to $76 after 482,161 shares changed hands, Proven Investments declined to $37.50, after losing $1.35 transferring 359 units, Sagicor Group closed $1 lower to $45, in swapping 73,341 shares. Scotia Group traded $2 lower to end at $43, with an exchange of 255,788 shares and Seprod ended with a loss of $2.60 to close at $42, in trading 101,200 shares.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows one stock ended with bids higher than its last selling prices and one with a lower offer.
Lasco Distributors shed 3 cents in trading of 43,601 units at $2.95, Lasco Financial closed market activity with 14,650 units crossing the exchange and gained 4 cents to end at $2.92. Lasco Manufacturing exchanged 32,261 shares and rose 2 cents to end at $3.90, Limners and Bards fell 6 cents to $1.94 in trading of 12,443 units, Lumber Depot declined 2 cents in swapping 4,795,516 units to finish at $1.13. Mailpac Group ended activity 1 cent higher at $1.76 with 1,472,663 shares traded, Main Event climbed 5 cents to settle at $1.19 with 1,880,010 shares changing hands, Medical Disposables exchanged 114,000 shares and rose 54 cents to end at $5.55. Stationery and Office Supplies closed with a loss of 50 cents at $6 in the swapping of 67,329 shares and tTech shred 77 cents to settle at $3.98 with 238,233 shares crossing the exchange.
