Thursday, 27th June 2013 | Trading picked up today as the amount spent on stocks increased to more than $42.8 million as 4.66 million shares changed hands with 27 stocks trading resulting in 11 being up while 6 declined in price. Two new all-time closing highs were reached on the day, a third stock closed at its 52 weeks high and Lasco Financial Services closed at $12 for an all-time closing high. All indices that had stocks that traded declined marginally at the close.
Junior market | Much interest continued in the three Lasco companies as all three traded more than 500,000 units each. Lasco Distributors traded 1,090,159 units at a value of $16.978 million and Lasco Financial Services traded 518,000 at a cost of $5.73 million as the stock closed up 20 cents at $12. Lasco Manufacturing, closed off 20 cents at $15.60 with 531,000 units trading. General Accident traded 467,000 units at $2.04 accounting for $952,000, Access traded 8,988 units at new high of $8.25 while Blue Power had trading in 500,000 units, costing $5 million as the stock retreated 50 cents on the day to close at $10.
Trading took place in the stocks of 9 junior companies. All three Lasco companies approved a 10 for 1 stock split at an extra ordinary general meeting on Wednesday. The record date for the Lasco splits is July 9, 2013 and the ex-date is July 5, 2013.
Main Market | Prices generally recovered from declines earlier in the week even as the indices slipped marginally. While Berger slipped 15 cents to close at $2.30 with 19,000 shares crossing the exchange, Carreras regained $1 off of the amount which was lost yesterday recovering from the initial reaction to the proposed ban on the smoking of cigarettes in public, the stock closed at $53.50, on very small volume. Pan Jamaican gained $2.08 while trading under 3,000 units to close at $52.60, the same level as the bid. Scotia Investments put on $1 to close at $27.50 but only 1,000 units traded. The bid on the stock on Trinidad exchange is at the equivalent of J$28 and it could trade higher as there is little supply in the market currently.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows that bids for 3 stocks were higher with 3 stocks that had offers lower than their last selling price.
