JSE main market at record close – Monday

The Jamaica Stock Exchange main market closed at a new record high on Monday, with All Jamaican Composite Index surging 9,373.64 points to 435,257.80 and the JSE Index climbing 8,518.11 points to 396,523.86.
The market is breaking the record high reached on November 29 last year of 433,307.22 on the All Jamaica index and 394,791.89 on the JSE Index. Caribbean Cement sparked added interest in the market, ahead of the close of the month as investors responded to strong first quarter results in buying up 274,801 shares up to $79.50. Also contributing to the strong gains was Sagicor Group that closed at $47.50.
At the close NCB Financial traded 2.12 million shares to close at $143.50, but ended with a closing with a bid of $148, PanJam Investment closed at $83 having a bid at $85. Wisynco Group closed at a record high of $12.50 have just less than 96,000 shares on offer between $12.50 and $16.
At the close, the main and US markets had 33 securities traded, compared to 32 on Friday leading to 15 advancing, 9 declining and 9 closing unchanged.
Market activity on the main market ended with 4,679,663 units valued $362,626,260 changing hands, compared to 4,427,445 units valued at $384,592,987 units trading on Friday.
NCB trades, accounted for just over 45 percent of total main market volume, followed by Jamaica Producers with 343,580 units and 7 percent of the day’s trades and Eppley with 295,409 units for 6 percent of volume traded.
Market activity ended with an average of 146,239 units valued at an average of $11,332,071 for each security traded, in contrast to 147,582 units for an average of $12,819,766 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 157,923 shares at $3,718,919 for each security, compared to 158,599 shares at $3,037,176 previously. Trading for March resulted in an average of 438,501 shares at $9,851,307, for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator|The Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator ended with the reading showing 11 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and just 2 closing with lower offers.
In main market activity, Barita Investments rose 50 cents to close at $42.50, with an exchange of 5,945 shares, Caribbean Cement jumped $13.87 to $77.99 with 274,801 shares changing hands, Jamaica Broilers climbed $2 in exchanging 9,818 units to end at $34, Jamaica Producers gained $1.50 to close at $23, after trading 343,580 stock units. Jamaica Stock Exchange gained 49 cents and ended at $17.99, trading 23,006 shares, JMMB Group concluded trading at $33.00, with 24,800 shares, Kingston Wharves  climbed $1 and settled at $72, with an exchange of 446 units, NCB Financial Group  declined $1.50 to close at $143.50, trading 2,122,314 shares. PanJam Investment  climbed $1.50 and ended at $83, with 65,800 units changing hands, Sagicor Group jumped $3.50 to end at $47.50 in an exchange of 51,319 shares. Sagicor Real Estate Fund  added 90 cents to end at $10, trading 67,521 shares, Seprod rose $1.35 and closed at $44.80, trading 63,993 shares and Wisynco Group rose 50 cents to end trading of 145,718 shares at a record high of $12.50.
Trading in the US dollar market ended with JMMB Group 6% preference share being the sole active stock and ended exchanging 2,500 shares trading with a value of US$2,600 to close at US$1.04. The JSE USD Equities Index closed unchanged at 177.64.