Marlene Street Forrest – General Manager of the JSE is said to have intervened to reset the price Express Catering could trade at on Tuesday.
Good sense prevailed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Tuesday, finally allowing Express Catering to trade close to levels that large number of investors are prepared to trade the stock. In the process the price jumped 96% from Friday’s closing price and 127 percent from the IPO price of $1.50.
At the close on Monday, bids in the market above $2.29 were cancelled, an indication that the maximum price it could trade at being $2.97. IC Insider.com understands that regulations at the exchange permitted administrative intervention in the trading restriction that allowed the stock to enjoy the revised permitted price range of $2.52 to $3.41. The stock ended up trading 32,750,000 units to close with a gain of $1.67 to $3.41. During trading, the electronic board, showed that 65.6 million units traded up to $3.80. After the market closed a large portion were cancelled since the price exceeded the limit set for the day. The stock closed with the bid at $3.50 which will allow it to trade up $4.55 on Wednesday.
Trading on the Junior Market jumped sharply on Tuesday with the large trade in Express Catering, to 35,527,220 shares valued at $124,668,100, up from 1,438.180 shares valued at $7,648,204 traded on Monday. At the close, the market index rose 40.03 points to 3,028.93.
At the close, 21 securities traded, up from 17 on Monday with 9 stocks gaining and 7 declining. Trading closed with 5 stocks having a higher bids than the last traded price and 2 closing with lower offers.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average of 1,691,772 units for an average value of $5,936,576 compared to 84,599 units for an average of $449,894 on Monday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 239,926 units at $680,321, compared to 74,820 units valued at $371,129 previously. In contrast, June closed with averages of 395,969 units valued at $1,799,200 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging rose 20 cents and closed at $3.70 with 1,733 units changing hands, Blue Power dived $7 after falling $ 4 on Monday to close at $38 with 8,588 units changing hands, Cargo Handlers ended trading 4,853 shares to close at $13.75, Caribbean Cream jumped by $1 and closed trading with 105,300 units at $7, Caribbean Producers gained 38 cents to close trading with 57,863 units, at $3.40, 
Consolidated Bakeries ended with 85,000 units changing hands, to close at $2.62. Dolphin Cove ended at $17.50 with 555 shares changing hands, Eppley gained 5 cents and closed trading with 16,985 shares at a new high of $13, General Accident added 1 cent and closed trading with 80,838 shares at $2.51, Honey Bun plunged $1 with 16,760 shares changing hands and closed at $5, ISP Finance slipped $2 and closed with 23,500 units changing hands at $12, Jetcon Corporation traded 62,653 shares to end at $4.61, after gaining 11 cents, Knutsford Express traded 4,481 shares to end at $15, Lasco Distributors closed 39 cents lower at $6.51 after trading 53,268 units, Lasco Financial rose 6 cents and ended with 57,505 shares changing hands at $3.56, Lasco Manufacturing shed 19 cents and ended with 2,107,735 shares trading at $4.31, Main Event lost 10 cents to close with 20,787 shares trading at $5.20, strong> Medical Disposables lost 1 cent in ending at $5.50 with 343 units trading, Paramount Trading ended with 72,354 units changing hands at $2.95 and tTech traded 4,699 units, falling 10 cents to close at $9.50.
