JSE continues up

Prices on the Jamaica Stock Exchange continued in a positive mode on the second day of July, albeit not as strong as on the first, but it ended on a high, with Scotia Group climbing for the second day, after it posted gains of $1.25 on Wednesday. The movement in the banking group stock price, was again the main contributor to the rise of the main indices on Thursday.
The market closed with a large number of stocks showing softness suggesting that there could be large number of declines evens as advances may pick up from today’s levels.
Trading ended with 9 stocks rising, 5 declining as 23 securities changed hands and ending in 1,876,486 units trading, valued at $10,673,692 and 1 stock closed at 52 weeks’ high in all market segments.
The JSE Market Index declined 284.62 points to 99,026.54 the JSE All Jamaican Composite index gained 318.14 points to close at 109,624.01 but the JSE combined index rose 223.92 points to end at 101,440.59 thanks to gains in the junior market offsetting declines in the main market.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator was showing a poor reading of only 13 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 13 with offers that were lower, in contrast 6 to 7 at the close on Wednesday.
In trading, Cable & Wireless had 539,627 units changing hands to close at 46 cents. Caribbean Cement had 117,440 units trading at $5.50 after shedding another 20 cents on top of 30 cents on Wednesday. Desnoes and Geddes traded 7,086 shares at $7.39 to end down 15 cents, Gleaner ended with 30452 shares changing hands, to gain 2 cents, for a 52 weeks’ high of $1.50. Jamaica Broilers gained 30 cents to reach $5.75 while only 2,000 shares changed hands, the stock closed with an off at $5.65, Jamaica Stock Exchange traded just 2,000 shares and shed 35 cents in closing at $5.75, at the close the bid was at $6.15. National Commercial Bank in trading 26,067 shares, to close higher by 86 cents at $29.90, Pan Jamaican rose 50 cents to $62 with 22,779 shares trading, the stock was mostly down on the day at $61.10. Sagicor Group with 20,883 units trading, ended unchanged at $13.01, Sagicor Real Estate Fund traded 80,000 units with a decline of 38 cents to $7.62 and Scotia Group that traded 106,740 shares to close at $24.94 to gain 43 cents but closed with the offer at $24.50. Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 649,316 to gain 2 cents at $3.