The Junior Market activity picked up sharply on Wednesday with both volume and values climbing strongly over Tuesday’s levels while the market index gained another day when trades Eppley ordinary share at $12 with a potential gain $7.10 and Jamaican Teas at $6.20 for a gain 65 percent were canceled at the close, having exceeded the daily price limits placed on trading by the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
The failure of trades in the two stocks between Tuesday and Wednesday being recorded as official trades is said by the JSE to be determined by a little know rule that the JSE instituted outside the circuit breaker. The circuit breaker rule was put in place in the 1990 in attempt to appease critics of the exchange who were concerned about big swings in stock prices back then. The initial price limit was set at 15 percent above or below the closing price in a day, but the stock could trade higher if the bids or offers exceeded the closing price by more than 15%. In 2014 the Exchange rewrote the rules allowing price movement up to 30 percent in a day from the previous day’s closing price, no limitation were placed on the level that the closing bids and offers could be. The stock exchange now states that a rule exist that limits the level of bids and offers that can be posted above the last closing price to 15 percent. That limitation was not in the original circuit breaker rule and not in the current one. It appears to this publication that the 2014 rules, having been completely rewritten, overrides all prior ones and therefore the exchange has been acting in breach of the rule by limiting bids and offers and canceling trades as a result.
On Wednesday, the Junior Market index rose 17.73 points, to end at 3,016.21 with 5,257,482 units valued at over $20,969,571 passing through the market, compared to 541,499 units valued at $4,457,020 that were traded on Tuesday. At the close, with 20 securities changing hands, with 9 advancing and 5 declining compared to 20 on Tuesday.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average of 262,374 units for an average value of $1,048,479 traded, compared to 27,075 units for an average value of $222,851 on the previous trading day. The average volume and value for the month to date are 216,806 units and $1,422,759. The average volume and value for the month to the previous trading day ended at 212,663 units and $1,456,784. The average volume and value for March was 137,459 units and $1,313,411.
Trading ended with 2 stocks having bids higher than their last sale prices and 2 ending with lower offers, than their last traded price.
At the close of the market on Wednesday, AMG Packaging lost 49 cents to close at $5 with 56,490 units changing hands, following six months results that continued to be lower than the prior year’s figures with $26.4 million reported after tax compared with $52.2 million for the similar period in 2016. Cargo Handlers lost 40 cents in trading just 1,995 shares at $20.10, Caribbean Cream traded 8,955 units to end at $7.80, Derrimon Trading ended at $8.50 with 2,000 shares trading, General Accident gained 15 cents and closed trading with 445,164 shares to end at $3.30, Honey Bun had 8,830 shares changing hands to close with a rise of 25 cents to end at $7.50, Iron Rock Insurance traded 78,275 shares to end at $3, ISP Finance rose 70 cents to end at a 52 weeks’ closing high of $16.10 with 19,094 units. Jetcon Corporation rose 10 cents to end at $12 with 87,622 shares traded, Key Insurance traded 954,445 units to close at $3, KLE Group ended at $2.50 with 80,000 shares changing hands after falling by 20 cents, Knutsford Express closed trading with 8,848 shares at $41, Lasco Distributors ended with 88,575 units trading at $6.80, Lasco Financial lost 5 cents and ended with 8,787 shares changing hands at $4, Lasco Manufacturing gained 15 cents to close with 1,076,495 units changing hands at $4.95, Main Event rose 25 cents trading 17,917 shares at $5.60, Medical Disposables closed trading with 1,367 shares to end at $6, Paramount Trading lost 5 cents and closed at $3.50 with 2,303,823 units trading, tTech rose 30 cents, trading 1,800 shares to end at $7.50 and Eppley 8.25% preference share closed trading with 12,000 units at a 52 weeks high of $6.10.