Monday, 8th July 2013 | In a moderate trading session, the junior market raced to the 4^th record high in less than a week as the Lasco Manufacturing and AMG Packaging moved up minutely in price. But the fall back in the price of Scotia Group from the impact of Friday’s rise, when it traded at $24, was felt today along with a fall in NCB and Carreras.

Main Market | The all Jamaica Index fell sharply by 2,286.97 points to close at 88,233.55 and the main market index dropped by 1,299.05 to end the day at 86,977.41. Trades of note include Carreras down to $55 off by 78 cents while trading 5,750 shares, NCB shed 75 cents to close at $19.25 with 71,600 shares trading, Sagicor Life put on 57 cents to close at $9, 180,538 shares traded, Scotia Group traded 152,000 shares valued at $3.2 million and closed back at $22, the same as the last trade on Friday. Scotia Investment traded 87,852 shares as the stock closed at $26 down 50 cents, after trading between $26 and $26.70.

Junior Market | 10 stocks traded in the junior market with Blue Power trading 45,798 shares at the price of $9.18 with no change for the day. Caribbean Producers traded 75,712 units at $2.03. Dolphin Cove closed down 15 cents at $8.20, General Accident moved 353,000 between $1.96 and $2.02, Lasco Distributors traded 381,576 units at $1.80 and had a bid for 118,000 units at $1.80 at the close. Lasco Finance saw more than 441,000 units changing hands between $1.30 and $1.32 with 73,000 units on the bid at the close at $1.33. Lasco Manufacturing closed up 2 cents at $1.65, an all-time closing high with 60,000 units. The stock traded between $1.65 and $1.80.

The three Lasco shares will be free to trade  in the post-split quantities on Tuesday. With the full volume available to trade, it should be interesting to see the market’s reaction.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows that bids for 4 stocks were higher with 3 stocks having offers that were lower than their last selling price.

Friday, 5th July 2013 |  The junior market closed at a new all-time high at 823.39 points up 13. The fireworks that was expected in the trading of the Lasco shares did not materialise as investors could not trade in shares with a record date of July 9^th since the central depository did not make the switch over to the new number of shares. In the end, investors could not trade more than the number of shares they previously held. What little trading that took place left Lasco Distributors at $1.80 up by 17.25 cents over Thursday’s price as 54,400 shares traded at $1.80, Lasco Financial traded 30,000 shares at $1.30, a gain of 10 cents or the equivalent to $1 based on the old price.

In Friday’s activity, 25 stocks traded valued at $49.1 million, more than twice Thursday’s trade of $22.35 million. The advance decline ratio remained tilted in favour of declining stocks with 9 declining and 8 advancing as all the indices moved up sharply with the exception of the US dollar index which declined marginally and the cross listed that had no trades.

Main Market | The all Jamaica Index leapt 1,611.32 points to close at 90,572 and the JSE market index by 915.26 to close at 88,276.46 . Trades of note include Scotia Group, the dominant stock of the day, with 786,000 shares trading between $21.11 and $24. Scotia Investment, the broker, crossed shares at the higher prices with the stock closing up 85 cents. Carreras traded 6,500 shares between $55 and $56, the stock closed at 55 off $1. Grace Kennedy lost 50 cents to close at $59.50 on limited volume. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded down 47 cents to close at $8 while trading 156,200

Jamaica Producers climbed to $20 up 50 but only 3,200 shares trading. Sagicor Life lost 57 cents to close at $8.43 while trading 34,554 shares, Scotia Investments did not trade but the price in Trinidad moved up to $29.20 in today’s trading, nearly a 10 percent difference to the local price of $26.50.

Junior market | 8 stocks in the junior market traded. Blue Power traded 1,147 shares and dropped $1.22 to $9.18, Dolphin Cove closed down 15 cents to $8.35 on very low volume, and the only other trade of note was Access Financial Services 13,269 shares at $8.25.

Proven Investment Preference shares traded 3.935 million units valued at $19.83 million while the ordinary shares, which are quoted in US dollars traded 457,725 at a value of US$51,972. The stock lost a fraction of a cent to close at 11.35 US cents.

Market intelligence | Cable & Wireless remains under pressure with offers in excess of 30 million shares at 15 cents and few bids in the market to support the volume at that price.  The demand for the stock has not changed much since Thursday. RJR still has a bid of $1.23 to buy 4.79 million shares, the lowest offer seems small at $1.30 at close. Bids seem to be building for Carreras as the offers taper off.  Mayberry Investments still has an order to sell 1 million units at $5.18 which is preventing the stock from moving up. At the same time, there are still two bids for 500,000 units each at $4.67 as the only visible major bids. Grace Kennedy still has 700,000 units on offer at $61. The tightness in the bids and offers in Jamaica Producers remains. The strongest bid on Scotia Investments remains at $26 for 221,000 but an offer of 6 million units at $30 may act as a short term barrier on the upside.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows that bids for 4 stocks were higher with 2 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.