Friday, 11 October 2013 | Stock market investors in Jamaica must have breathed a sigh of relief when the end of the week came and ended a relatively painful 6 straight days of decline in the main and junior markets. Friday’s trades brought a ray of hope that things were not all lost, as the one stock, Carreras, that helped to pull the main market indices down, enjoyed some respite on Friday by climbing to $41 from $39 on Thursday. Friday was also another big trading day as two large trades helped push the volume up with 13,896,728 units valued at $282,533,917 trading in the market.
The JSE main index closed at 83,328.28, an increase of 394.03, the all Jamaica Index climbed to 82,309.51 up by 693.30 and the junior market was up by 6.25 to 747.12.
Main market | Carreras managed to put through 45,754 units as the price closed at $41 up $1.99. There appears to be a little more buying interest for the stock with Mayberry on the bid to buy for in-house purposes. The next bids below are at $36 from NCB Capital Markets for in-house purposes. These may lend some level of support for a while but the boarder picture will be the impact that the September results could have on the price when they are released in a few weeks time.
The past week was not filled with many positive sentiments, but there were some big trades going through on a number of days. On Friday, it was the time for Grace Kennedy to shine with a big trade valued at $156,716,459 as investors picked up 2,773,709 units closing the price at $56.50 down by 50 cents. With such a sizeable trade one may be tempted to think that Grace Kennedy was in the market with their buy-back plan. Data showed Stocks & Securities was the main seller while NCB Capital Markets, who bought 1 million units and JMMB Securities with 600,000, were the two large buyers while Stocks & Securities crossed 1 million units. Stocks & Securities crossed 2,914,752 Scotia Group shares while 1 million units were acquired by Scotia Investments for clients as Mayberry sold 1.2 million units resulting in a total of 4,384,221 of Scotia Group shares trading to close at $20.30 down 20 cents, for a value of $91,350,946.
Elsewhere, Cable & Wireless exchanged 443,865 units firm at 18 cents; Caribbean Cement 27,242 units resulted in a close at $2; First Caribbean International Bank traded 16,176 to close firm at $100; Jamaica Broilers enjoyed a 50 cents recovery as 10,000 units changed hands to close at $4.50. Mayberry Investments traded 60,663 units with the price unchanged at $2.61 at close; National Commercial Bank chipped in with 214,105 shares as the price ended at $18.25 up 5 cents. Radio Jamaica 2,030,000 units traded mostly at $1.32, the closing price, and Sagicor Life put in 260,151 units to close at $8.60 up by 26 cents.
In the preference sector, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference shares changed 364,000 units at $3 and Proven Investments 8% preference shares traded just 78,000 to close unchanged at $5.09.
Junior market | Trading picked up in the junior market as 11 of the companies participated in trading as Blue Power Group traded 21,847 units to close unchanged at $9.28; Caribbean Producers had 383,347 units going through the market to close unchanged at $2.08; Dolphin Cove put in a big trade as 2,228,030 units with a value of $18,490,999 were traded as the price recovered 50 cents to close at $8; General Accident Insurance exchanged 42,051 units to close 14 cents up to end at $1.65.
Jamaican Teas saw 64,007 changing hands as the price slipped by 10 cents to close at $3.80; Lasco Distributors 131,841 units resulted in no change in price of $1.45; Lasco Financial 68,794 units traded to close unchanged at $1.20; Lasco Manufacturing put on 4 cents to close at $1.45 with 87,141 units and Paramount Trading lost 20 cents as 99,615 units traded to close at $3.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed the market in a sideways movement with bids for 5 stocks being higher and 5 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.
