NCB Financial (NCB) surged $13 to record high of $107 while trading 26,721 units, as 10 securities gained and pushed the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index by 8,028.94 points to a record close of 313,990.54.
NCB closed with just two offers for stocks placed on the market for sale at the close on Friday for a total of 5,320 shares, an indication that supply is drying up faster that demand for the stock.
Trading in the main and US dollar markets ended with 24 securities changing hands, of which 10 advanced, 7 declined and 7 traded firm.
In the market activity, Berger Paints closed $1.50 higher at $14, with 20,799 stock units changing hands, Cable & Wireless traded with a loss of 10 cents at $1.10, with 171,802 units, Caribbean Cement ended with a loss of 90 cents to end at $27.10, with 3,910 shares, Carreras finished trading 30 cents higher at $11.50, with 191,102 stock units, Grace Kennedy traded 11,334 shares and gained 30 cents to end at $42.80. Jamaica Broilers ended trading 94 cents higher at $18.95, with 562 stock units, Jamaica Producers ended trading at $16, with 2,066 shares changing hands, Jamaica Stock Exchange traded at $7, with 19,850 units, JMMB Group ended trading with a loss of 10 cents at $27.50, with 159,999 stock units, Kingston Wharves rose $1.50 to $31.50, with 5,248 units, Mayberry Investments settled with a loss of 11 cents at $4.10, with 73,995 shares, 1834 Investments ended at $1.35, with 4,390 units trading, PanJam Investment ended with a loss of $1.50 at $39.50, with 12,000 stock units. Radio Jamaica closed 5 cents higher at $1.15, with 73,031 units, Sagicor Group ended trading at $39.50 after rising $1.50, with 71,333 shares, Sagicor Real Estate Fund jumped 99 cents to a new high at $15, with 3,630,842 units, Salada Foods Jamaica finished with a loss of 20 cents at $9.80, with 2,000 stock units, Scotia Group finished trading with a loss of 92 cents at $49.08, with 247,759 shares. Supreme Ventures ended trading 40 cents higher at $11.90, with 13,160 stock units changing hands. In the main market preference segment, JMMB Group finished trading at $1.11, with 417,882 stock units, In the US dollar market segment, Productivity Business traded 135,846 shares at 57.5 US cents after losing 2.5 cents and Proven Investments closed with 4,015 units trading at 23.5 US cents and JMMB Group 6% US dollar preference share traded 1,500 units at $1.10.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
TTSE remains under pressure
Trading on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange closed on Friday with 14 securities changing hands compared to 12 on Thursday with 3 rising, 4 falling and 7 were left unchanged.
The market closed with two securities trading at 52 weeks’ low and one at 52 weeks’ high.
At the close, only 309,397 shares traded at a value of $2,564,070 compared to Thursday’s trades of just 162,830 units valued at $1,808,056.
The Composite Index dropped 2.97 points to 1,245.67, the All T&T Index declined by 6.08 points to 1,764.60 but the Cross Listed Index added 0.03 points to close at 97.74.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended with 2 stocks with bids higher than last selling prices and 6 with lower offers.
Gains| At the close of trading NCB Financial Group closed at a new 52 weeks’ high of $5.32, having gained 1 cent with 400 units. Scotiabank rose 1 cent and closed at $58.06 with 22,071 shares valued at $1,281,442 changing hands and Trinidad &Tobago NGL settled at $23.06, rising 5 cents with 4,250 shares having traded.
Losses| Massy Holdings ended with a loss of 46 cents, to close at $50.01 after trading just 50 units, National Enterprises fell by 35 cents to a 52 weeks’ low of $10 with 300 shares trading, Sagicor Financial lost 25 cents and closed at $7.75, with 11,460 shares changing hands and Unilever Caribbean dropped $1.90 lower to a 52 weeks’ low of $40 in exchanging a mere 10 units.
Firm Trades| Securities trading unchanged at the close are Ansa McAL with 290 units at $63.01. Ansa Merchant Bank exchanged 3,156 shares at $40, First Citizens remained at $31.76 with 3,388 shares, Grace Kennedy closed at $2.90 with 15,000 shares. Guardian Holdings ended at $15.26 with 23,120 shares valued at $352,811, JMMB Group held firm at $1.70 while trading 225,372 shares valued at $383,132 and Republic Financial Holdings settled at $101.79 with 530 units.
Bulls take charge of Exchange Place
The Main Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange closed at another record on Friday with 21 securities changing hands in the main market and 3 in the US dollar market and 22 in the Junior Market.
At the close, the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index jumped 8,028.94 points to a record close of 313,990.54 and the JSE Index to surged 7,315.27 points to 286,080.89. The Junior Market rose 48.58 points to end the week at 3,034.13. The US dollar Index fell 2.29 points to 183.01.
Friday’s move pushed the market outside of the medium term channel it has been trading in since 2014 and if the price of NCB holds, the break out for the market will be significant as it move on to the 360,000 points level.
NCB Financial traded at a new record of $107 and is ahead of the $102 it traded at in Trinidad on Friday, up until today it trailed the price of J$100 it was trading at in the twin island state. Berger Paints traded at $14, after news broke on Thursday that only 6.6 million shares were sold by minority shareholders to Ansa Coating following the company’s mandatory offer of $10.88 per share. Attempts were made to trade it as high as $17.50 but the price exceeded the 30 percent limit it could trade at for the day and was cancelled at the close of the market. Trading closed with bids to buy Berger ranging from a low of $11.02 to a high of $14 to purchase 259,773 shares, 204,458 units are on sale from a low of $16.75 for 41,583 units to mostly 89,388 at $22.
For the year to date, the All Jamaican Composite Index is up 49.4 percent and the JSE Index 48.8 percent.
In the foreign exchange market at midday dealers bought US$13,372,228 at J$127.31 and sold US$11,367,821 at J$127.74.