Barita & Eppley lead Main Market

Barita Investments and Eppley Caribbean Property Fund dominated trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Main Market on Wednesday, accounting for more than 85 percent of the day’s volume, with the market indices rising strongly helped partially by Barita that closed at over $92.

Barita Investments headquarters

The Eppley’s trade represents shares issued to Seprod for the purchase of real estate, which the Seprod’s directors approved as a dividend payment in kind to its shareholders.
At the close, the All Jamaican Composite Index advanced by 4,994.49 points to 410,812.72, the Main Index climbed 4,377.44 points to 374,598.05 and the JSE Financial Index gained 1.52 points to settle at 99.22.
Trading ended with 45 securities changing hands similar to Tuesday and closed with the prices of 15 stocks rising, 16 declining and 14 remaining unchanged. The average PE Ratio of the market ended at 15.2 based on the IC Insider.com forecast of 2020-21 earnings.
The market closed with an exchange of 140 percent more shares at twenty-three times the value on Tuesday. Trading ended with an exchange of 34,264,220 shares worth $1,811,637,449 compared to 14,290,519 units at $77,620,091 on Tuesday. Eppley Caribbean Property Fund led trading with 45.1 percent of total volume with 15.45 million shares, followed by Barita Investments with 35.4 percent as 12.14 million units passed through the market, Transjamaican Highway ended with 6 percent market share after 2.07 million units traded and Wigton Windfarm closed with 5.7 percent market share after 1.95 million units changed hands.
Trading ended with an average of 761,427 units changing hands at $40,258,610 for each security compared to an average of 317,567 shares at $1,724,891 on Tuesday. The average trade for the month to date ended at 319,665 units at $5,927,670 for each security, in contrast to 268,164 units at $1,925,358. Trading month to date compares well to September’s average of 265,170 units at $3,271,625.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading for the market shows 10 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and five with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Barita Investments climbed $8.20 to close at $92.20 as investors switched ownership of 12,135,102 shares, Eppley shed 40 cents to settle at $21.10, with 26,977 stock units crossing the exchange, Eppley Caribbean Property Fund fell by $4.85 to $43.15, after trading 15,447,465 shares. Jamaica Broilers Group shed 30 cents, exchanging 15,596 stock units to end at $27.20, Jamaica Stock Exchange closed at $17.50, after losing 55 cents with 19,433 stock units changing hands, Key Insurance declined by $1.30 to end at $9.60, after crossing the market with 520,574 shares. Kingston Wharves climbed $4.55 to $44.57 in trading 744 units, MPC Caribbean Clean Energy advanced by $5 to $140, with a transfer of only one unit, NCB Financial gained 50 cents in closing at $135.50 in exchanging 12,048 units. Sagicor Group rose $1.61 to $45.72, with 15,464 units passing through the market, Scotia Group shed 33 cents trading 62,120 shares and closed at $46.41, Seprod climbed $2 to $56, in exchanging 14,820 units. Stanley Motta lost 35 cents to end at $4.65 after trading 11,537 units, Supreme Ventures slid 90 cents in closing at $14, with 32,582 units crossing the exchange and Victoria Mutual Investments gained 32 cents to finish at $6.19 after investors trading 58,707 shares.