Thursday, 8th August 2013 | The Jamaican stock market suffered declines across the board for all indices in spite of a positive advanced decline ratio of 8 to 6, albeit moderate. The all Jamaica Index lost 89.71 points, closing at 86,890.98 and the JSE market index slipped by 50.98 to close at 86,214.63 and the Junior market eased to close at 801.72, 19 points lower than on Wednesday.
Just under $18 million worth of shares traded accounting for a volume of 6.57 million units. Cable & Wireless, which barely traded for several weeks, has now attracted interest ahead of the June quarter results as the stock traded 3 million units, in addition to 1.32 million on Wednesday, thus reducing the amounts on sale at 15 cents to 24 million units. Elsewhere, the other main contributions to the volume were Lasco Distributors traded 1.2 million units, Supreme Ventures 943,000 and 650,000 of Jamaica Money Market Brokers.
Carreras traded flat at $51.50 with just under 50,000 units. Caribbean Cement, continuing its response to the return to profit in the June quarter, gained 19 cents to close at $1.39 as 56,423 units traded. Grace gained 20 cents to close at $56.40 with very limited volume. Jamaica Money Market Brokers followed up yesterday’s 502,000 units traded and valued at $4 million with today’s larger volume worth $5.49 million and closed at $8.20, up 20 cents. National Commercial Bank traded just 21,750 units between $19.10 and $19.30 before closing at $19.30; demand seems to be building at the $19 level but supply is drying up below $23 and this is contributing to the low volumes being traded as investors try to get supplies at the lowest prices possible. Sagicor Life traded 256,514 units, closing up 5 cents at $8.70 but traded as high as $9. Scotia Group traded just 58,586 units down from just over 2 million units on Wednesday and closed the day at $21.01 after trading as high as $22. Supreme Ventures traded down to $2.75, off 15 cents, in direct response to the lower profit reported for the June quarter.
Junior market | Only stocks of 8 companies traded in the junior market as the prices of 3 gained and 2 fell, all with small changes. Caribbean Creams traded 44,644 shares to close firm at $1.06. Dolphin Cove traded 24,417 units firm, at $1.35. KLE Group traded 10 cents down to another all-time low of $1.70 with 5,000 shares trading. Lasco Distributors saw 1,198,070 units changing ownership and closed firm at $1.48 and Lasco Financial, which traded 195,148 units, closed at $1.51.
Eppley shares still have not traded and has no bids or offers at the close of trading.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows that bids for 8 stocks were higher with3 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.
After the bell | Kingston Properties released results showing a loss before fair value gain on investment property and miscellaneous income at $6.7 million for the six months ended June, 2013, compared with a profit of $6.7 million for the similar period in 2012. Profit for the latest quarter is $554,000 versus $4.2 million in 2012.
