Monday, 3rd February 2014 | The first trading day on the Jamaica Stock Exchange for the new month saw more stocks gaining value than those that lost but the main market indices fell as 27 securities changed hands with 8 advancing and 6 declining.
The JSE Market Index lost 951.58 points to end at 81,436.23 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite declined by 1,443.46 points to close at 83,938.97. For the Junior Market, the index slipped by 3.93 to close at 780.55. Trading resulted in only 2,182,178 units changing hands with a value of $18,449,519.
Main Market | As the market gave back some of the gains garnered towards the end of January, investors have to learn to stomach the month-end moves and not get caught up in the hype that often accompany seasoned investors behaviour towards each month end. The pull back in prices of some of last week’s winners, namely Scotia Group, National Commercial Bank and to a lesser degree Grace Kennedy and Scotia Investments, had a telling impact on the main market indices.
Stocks gaining | Cable & Wireless with 215,000 units to close at a 52 weeks high of 27 cents with the price gaining 2 cents at the end of trading; Caribbean Cement exchanged 22,056 shares with the price increasing by 13 cents to end the day at $4.80; Carreras 30,780 shares to close at $33.99 for a 49 cent gain; Ciboney with 491,000 units closed up 2 cents at 8 cents; Gleaner with 4,878 shares gained 2 cents to close at $1.12; Jamaica Money Market Brokers gained 9 cents to close at $7.49 with 60,700 shares.
Stocks falling | Desnoes & Geddes with 41,286 units to close at $4.98 as the price slipped by 52 cents; National Commercial Bank with only 3,636 units at $17.40 for a fall of 60 cents; Scotia Group 673,560 units closing at $20.71 for a $1.23 drop; and Scotia Investments with just 8,740 units as the price fell $3.40 to end at $23.10.
Firm Trades | Kingston Properties with 55,680 shares at $4.45; Sagicor Investments 7,235 units at $20 and Sagicor Group with 81,885 shares changing hands at $10. In the preference section, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% traded 54,119 units at $2.
Junior Market | Of the ten stocks trading in the junior market, only 4 had much volume changing hands.
Gainers | Caribbean Flavours traded only 2,750 shares at a new all-time high of $2.85, the price was up by 35 cents. The company announced that the board of directors will be meeting on February 5, 2014 to consider the payment of a dividend. Lasco Manufacturing traded 101,086 units to close up a cent at $1.32.
Firm Trades | Lasco Distributors traded 149,915 units and closed at $1.45; Consolidated Bakeries traded with 52,765 units at $1.15 and AMG Packaging 7,050 shares at $3.45.
Stocks falling | Lasco Financial Services traded 99,000 units, lost 4 cents to close at $1.35 and Medical Disposables 5,000 units at $2.05, down 5 cents.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 7 stocks with bids higher than the last selling prices and 1 stock with the offer that was lower.