Friday, 20th September 2013 | The Jamaica Stock market bounced back on Friday after three days of declines as 5,298,523 units changed hands at a value of $27,073,392 with 7 stocks advancing in price to 6 declining.

The all Jamaica Index moved up by 673.98 to close at 84,933.87 and the Main market index was up 383.05 to 84,819.82 recovering most of the decline from Thursday. The recovery was not enough to stop the week from being down as the indices fell sharply from the start of the week to Thursday. The junior index declined once more since a small increase on Monday being off 5.52 to close the week at 757.83, the lowest since June 19 and a decline from 840 points on July 9.

The fall in the market this week along with the fall in the value of the Jamaican dollar against the US dollar may be sending negative signals to investors. However, the technical indicators point to a strong market ahead as the ‘golden cross’ is in full effect for the junior market and is well on the way for the main market with the 120 day moving average in the process of crossing through the 200 days moving average. Against this back ground, the market seems to be consolidating before moving up again.

Main Market | Trading was dominated by Jamaica Money Market Brokers and Jamaica Broilers Group with relatively large volumes. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 1,000,000 units for a value of $8,000,000 and closed up 50 cents at $8 and Jamaica Broilers Group exchanged 1,568,140 units valued at $7,527,072 to close at $4.80 for a 5 cents gain. Elsewhere, Carreras put in a volume of 12,000 shares and closed at $47.50 down $1.49 on the day; Desnoes & Geddes 1,000 traded to close at $4.77 as the price gained 22 cents; Gleaner Company traded 60,000 and closed firm at $1.17; National Commercial Bank with 27,541 units closed at $19 for 33 cents gain; Sagicor Life Jamaica chipped in with 17,624 units and closed at $9 for 78 cents gain; Salada Foods had 200,000 shares changing hands firm at $8.50 with a value of $1,700,000; Scotia Group Jamaica 108,128 valued at $2,273,673 and closed at $20.58, down 51 cents and Supreme Ventures traded 44,107 shares at $2.80 for a 10 cents gain.

Juniors | Blue Power traded 160,000 units and absorbed most of the supply on the market as the priced closed at $9.90 for a 62 cents gain; Caribbean Cream traded 214,593 units, closed at 90 cents an all-time low, off by 13 cents; General Accident Insurance 65,000 units traded mostly at $1.75 but in late trading the price fell to $1.65, off by 12 cents at the end. KLE Group traded 14,460 units firm at $1.61, the trade sucked out the small amount of the stock that was on the bid, exposing the stock for a further fall in the price. Lasco Distributors had a fairly good volume of 986,896 units as the price closed firm at $1.50; Lasco Financial Services exchanged 313,667 units to close at $1.20, down 4 cents and Lasco Manufacturing traded 41,680 units firm at $1.45.

IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had deteriorated and showed that there were bids for 4 stocks being higher and 1 stock with an offer lower than their last selling price.

Thursday, 19th September 2013 | The advance decline ratio continues to be biased towards declining stocks in today’s trading. In the end, there were 8 stocks that declined to 10 that fell. 9,505,609 units traded valued at $24,622,649, including 1.5 million preference shares with a value of $7.5 million. The main market index fell by 389.16 to close at 84,436.77, the all Jamaica Index was down by 684.73 to 84,259.89 and the junior market was off 1.71 to 763.35.

The biggest movers were Grace Kennedy that gained back $2.48 from yesterday’s fall to close at $56 with 6,330 units trading and Carreras traded up 99 cents $48.99 with 39,187 units.

Cable & Wireless had a decent volume of 5,127,215 units trading up 1 cent t0 close at 18 cents; Jamaica Broilers 322,396 units resulting in a 25 cents drop in the price to $4.75; Jamaica Money Market exchanged 162,815 units to close at $7.50 down 50 cents; National Commercial Bank Jamaica exchanged just 37,500 units at $18.67 for a 2 cents increase; Sagicor Investments Jamaica contributed 10,812 units firm at $16.55; Sagicor Life saw their price moving down with 40,000 to $8.22 off 78 cents at the close and Scotia Group Jamaica lost 18 cents when the price closed at $21.09 with 40,000 units.

Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.50% traded 13600 units at $3.51, a decrease of 19 cents; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% traded 152,973 units firm at $3 and Proven Investments 8% had 1,372,000 shares exchanged firm at $5.09.

Access Financial Services 8,046 units resulted in a closing price of $8.28; AMG Packaging had 63,763 units exchanging hands firm at $4; Caribbean Producers had trading in 157,984 units as the price closed at $2.10; Lasco Distributors chipped in with 20,604 units as the price closed firm at $1.50; Lasco Financial Services had another large trade on Thursday as 1,176,747 changed hands, closing firm at $1.25.

IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed that there were bids for 3 stocks being higher and 3 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price. This indicator has weakened and combined with the advance decline ratio for the past few weeks is pointing to a fluid market that requires some catalyst to move it decisively.

Image courtesy of watcharakun/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Wednesday, 18th September 2013 | The Jamaica Stock Market was easy on Wednesday as there were little change in the indices except the Junior market index was down 12.60 to 765.06. Advancing and declining stocks were almost even at 7 to 8 and 15 had no price change at the end of trading. Trading levels were once more low with 8.2 million units being exchanged for $27.6 million, with the preference shares accounting for $5.8 million of the amount traded.

Main Market | Carreras is trying to recover but supply is placing pressure on the stock but it traded 5,913 at $48 as it gained 40 cents at the close. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 622,917 units valued at $5,271,675 as the price closed at $8 after trading as high as $8.45 for most of the day; Mayberry Investments put in 55,000 units with the price closing holding firm at $2.65; National Commercial Bank chipped in with 55,677 units with the price closing firm at $18.65; Sagicor Investments 34,865 units closed at $16.55; Sagicor Life put in 201,800 to close at $8.50 down 50 cents after trading most of the day at $9; Scotia Group traded 23,699 units with the price closing at $21.27 down by 3 cents; Scotia Investments 10,550 units closed at $26.50 down 50 cents; Infrequently traded Seprod put in a volume of 3,00,227 units as the price closed at $14, an increase of $1.00; Supreme Ventures lost 15 cents at the close at $2.56 with 10,000 units changing hands; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% exchanged 1,383,131 units at $3 valued at $4,149,393 and Proven Investments 8% traded 330,939 at $5.09 valued at $1,684,480.

Junior market | AMG Packaging traded 37,428 units with the price closing firm at $4; Consolidated Bakeries contributed 110,445 units to the total traded with the price closing $1.22 down 12 cents; General Accident Insurance exchanged 133,881 $1.77, up 2 cents; Jamaican Teas traded 17,715 units with the price closing firm at $4; Lasco Distributors saw a large volume of 2,000,000 units trading with the price closing at $1.50 unchanged valued at $3,000,000 as just one trade took place; Lasco Financial Services accounted for 2,554,481 units with the price closing firm at $1.25 valued at $3,193,101 and Lasco Manufacturing saw 262,311 units trading with the price closing at $1.45 down 10 cents.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed that there were bids for 6 stocks being higher and 3 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.