Berger Paints ended at a 52 weeks’ high of $20 on Wednesday
The main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange is trading at record levels in the morning session on Wednesday.
The All Jamaica Index crossed over the 260,000 points mark, to hit 260,625.67 points at 11.30 am after adding 3,317.30 points. The Main Market Index is up 3,022.44 to 237,459.51 while the Combined Index jumped 2,631.98 points to 253,640.67. The US Equities Index slipped 6.38 to 212.61 and the Junior Market Index lost 15.43 to trade at 3,252.90.
Stocks with noticeable moves, are Berger Paints that traded at a all-time high of $20, Caribbean Cement traded at $32,a big recovery from yesterday’s low. The rise comes against the back ground of some shareholders slated to meet with management later today, in an attempt to clarify a number of issues relating to the company’s finances. NCBFinancial Group traded at $71.99 and Salada Foods jumped from $6.50 to $8 after the company released results for the half year, showing strong rise in profit.
In the Junior Market, Caribbean Producers rose to $4.50 in response to improved nine months’ results while Jamaican Teas rose to a new high of $5.10, in trading 134,800 shares and Main Event jumped to a new high of $8.
Student living housing provider, 138 Student Living reported progress in their half year results to March, with net profits of $27M, which represented an over 200 percent improvement compared to the previous year.
cents to close at $4.84 with 200 units changing hands, Cargo Handlers dipped 50 cents in trading 1,500 shares at $20, Caribbean Cream rose 35 cents and closed trading with 102,161 units at $7.85. Caribbean Flavours gained 90 cents in trading 30,000 units to end at $9.50, Caribbean Producers rose 10 cents trading 10,024 shares changing hands, to close at $3.90, Consolidated Bakeries lost 15 cents in trading 18,332 shares to close at $2.85, C2W Music had 10,000 units changing hands to close at 50 cents, Derrimon Trading fell 25 cents and ended at $8.25 with 4,905 shares changing hands, General Accident rose 10 cents and closed trading with 16,790 shares at $3.25, Honey Bun rose 10 cents with 76,556 shares changing hands, to close at $8, ISP Finance climbed $2.99 to end at a record closing high of $22.99 with 90,602 units changing hands. 
Jamaican Teas traded 7,900 shares, to close at $4.75, Jetcon Corporation dropped $1 and ended at $14 with 137,146 shares trading Knutsford Express traded 3,077 shares and gained $4 to end at a record close of $55. Lasco Distributors ended with 371,382 units trading with a loss of 30 cents at $7.15, Lasco Financial rose 40 cents and ended with 4,000 shares changing hands at $4.50, Lasco Manufacturing climbed 40 cents and closed at $5.50 while trading 88,171 shares, Main Event dropped 75 cents and ended trading 79,566 shares at $6.35, Medical Disposables climbed 50 cents and ended at $6.50 with 81,715 units trading, Paramount Trading ended with 500 shares changing hands at $3.05, tTech rose 20 cents and ended with 3,300 units changing hands at $7.20 and Eppley 8.25% preference share, traded 34,196 units to end at $6.10.
Trading on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange on Tuesday resulted in 12 securities changing hands, the same as on Monday. 
Losses| Guardian Holdings lost 1 cent to close at $15.59, with trades of 4,066 shares, NCB Financial Group was down 1 cent, closing at $4 with an exchange of 20,052 shares, One Caribbean Media closed 4 cents lower to $16.80 trading 180 shares. Prestige Holdings closed at $11, losing 1 cent with an exchange of 536 shares, Republic Financial Holdings closed at $101.91, after falling 9 cents with an exchange of 1,600 shares and Trinidad & Tobago NGL closed at $22.49, with a loss of 1 cent in exchanging 207 shares.
Trading in the main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange closed on Monday with 26 securities changing hands with 1 trading in the US dollar market. At the close, 10 stocks advanced and 8 declined with the main market ending in 2,884,030 units valued at $64,356,186 trading compared to 4,838,789 units valued at $105,278,278 at the close on Wednesday. 
In market activity, Berger Paints lost 5 cents to close at $16.85, in trading of 17,380 shares, Cable and Wireless closed at $1.34, with 353,181 shares changing hands, Caribbean Cement traded $1 higher to close at $29 with an exchange of 13,220 units, Carreras closed at $77 exchanging 57,323 shares, Grace Kennedy closed at $42.50, after gaining 25 cents and trading 800,378 units. Jamaica Broilers closed at $17.50, with gains of 50 cents trading 64,249 shares, Jamaica Producers closed $1 lower to $17.60 exchanging 223,675 shares and Jamaica Stock Exchange closed at $7.75, with a loss of 25 cents, trading 12,138 shares, JMMB Group closed at $21.25, losing 25 cents with trades of 11,790 units, Kingston Wharves traded 90 cents lower to close at $30, with 11,511 shares changing hands. Mayberry Investments gained 5 cents to close at $4.55 with an exchange of 78,234 shares, NCB Financial Group closed at $71, after exchanging 143,410 shares, 1834 Investments gained 6 cents to close at $1.50, trading 4,300 shares, 138 Student Living traded 100 units at $4.50,
PanJam Investment closed 19 cents higher to $35.20, in exchanging 7,317 shares, Portland JSX Fund closed at $10.60 trading 800 units. Pulse Investments closed trading at $9.10 in gaining $1.05 with 113,536 shares swapping owners, Radio Jamaica gained 2 cents and closed at $1.67, with 43,300 shares, Sagicor Group closed at $33.50, to record a gain of 45 cents in trading 29,153 shares, Sagicor Real Estate Fund gained 5 cents to close at $10.35 while exchanging 8,200 units, coffee processors, Salada Foods traded 2,700 units at $8, Scotia Group closed 50 cents lower at $43, with 29,579 units changing hands, Seprod shed $3.50 to close at $36, trading 15,860 shares Sterling Investments lost 1 cent to close at $17 with an exchange of 500 units, Supreme Ventures closed at $6.38, with trades of 678,489 shares and Proven Investments exchanged 1,502 ordinary shares at 30 US cents.
with less than 700,000 shares being exchanged. 
At the close of the market, Access Financial Services closed at $47 in trading 8,000 shares, AMG Packaging closed at $5 with 12,958 units changing hands, Blue Power climbed $2 and closed at $39 with 200 shares trading,Cargo Handlers clawed back 50 cents in trading 120,000 shares at $20.60, Caribbean Cream closed trading with 83,828 units at $7.50. Consolidated Bakeries rose 2 cents in trading 9,473 shares to close at $3, General Accident closed trading with 17,100 shares at $3.15, Honey Bun rose 10 cents with 23,924 shares changing hands, to close at $7.90, ISP Finance climbed $1.50 to end at a record high of $20 with 4,000 units changing hands after the price hit an intraday high of $24. Jamaican Teastraded 203,560 shares, to close at $4.75, 
Jetcon Corporation jumped $1.75 and ended at $15 with 3,849 shares trading Knutsford Express traded 1,050 shares at $51, the bid on the stock closed at $53. Lasco Distributors ended with 2,644 units trading with a gain of 15 cents at $7.45, Lasco Financial fell 45 cents and ended with 7,562 shares changing hands at $4.10, Lasco Manufacturing dropped 52 cents and closed at $5.10 while trading 33,874 shares, Main Event rose 35 cents and ended trading of 114,129 shares at all-time closing high of $7.10, Paramount Trading ended with 15,787 shares changing hands and fell 38 cents to $3.05, tTech lost 50 cents and ended with 2,000 units changing hands at $7 and Eppley 9.5% preference share, traded 850 units to end at $6.15.
Sagicor Financial lost 8 cents to close at $9.02 exchanging 1,000 shares and West Indian Tobacco closed 10 cents lower to $126.40 with trades of 1,113 shares.
Pulse split should be 4 not 2
Pulse Investments is a case in point. The directors propose to consider the splitting of the issued shares of the company into two units for each one currently issued.
Last year, in a hurriedly called extra ordinary general meeting, the company approved an increase in its authorised share capital and sanctioned the board proceed with a rights issue of share. This was after a resolution was belated inserted on the agenda of at the 2016 Annual General Meeting to approve a rights issue which was forced by shareholders into a postponement.
The company currently has 271,789,674 issued shares, the split would put the total up to 543,579,348 units. The company’s stock last traded on the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $8.05 and carries a PE of 6 compared to 13 for the main market.
From all indications, with the company’s PE ratio well below the general market, the company must be awaiting a greater uptick in stock price before going back to shareholders for more funds, a two for one split is not likely to do the work to get the price more in line with the market.
The problem is that Pulse is not a very liquid stock with just 271 million units issued. From my estimation the board should be considering a split in the order of 4 to 1 that would raise the issued shares to over 1 billion shares. Such a split would most likely excite the market and help move the stock upwards in price. The proposed 2 to 1 is not going to do it. With the Board Meeting is set to be held on Monday, May 22, it is not late for the directors to change their minds.