Friday, 21st February 2014 | The Jamaican stock market closed the week with the main indices increasing to partially recover from two previous days of decline. The JSE Market Index gained 168.44 points to close at 79,531.75 and closed the week down by 82 points, the JSE All Jamaican Composite increased by 595.32 points to 84,535.18 and closed the week higher than it started by more than 200 points.
Main Market | Advancing and declining stocks were almost evenly divided at the end of trading as National Commercial Bank dominated trading with 1.6 million units along with Carreras with nearly 1 million units and Desnoes & Geddes with 2 million units.
Gains | Caribbean Cement exchanged 2,100 shares at $4.97 for an increase of 27 cents; Carreras put in 980,789 shares at $36.01 for a one cent gain; Jamaica Money Market Brokers had 3,528 units trading at $7.49 as the price inched up by a cent; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share contributed 3,000 units to rise by a cent at $3.01; National Commercial Bank was active in trading 1,590,083 units to close at $19.00 for a gain of 98 cents and Seprod had only 950 units changing hands to close up 10 cents at $11.00.
Firm trade | There were only few stocks that traded with unchanged prices. First Caribbean International Bank traded 25,455 units to close at $80; Proven Investments had 580 units at US1799 cents; Sagicor Group had 169,967 shares at $9.15; Sagicor Real Estate X Fund 39,216 units at $7 and Supreme Ventures 59,000 shares at $2.40.
Declines | Cable & Wireless traded 718,201 but the price slipped by 2 cents to end at 35 cents; Desnoes & Geddes swapped 2,015,946 shares at $5 each and lost a cent in the process; Grace Kennedy gave up 94 cents as the stocks traded 3,808 units to close at $54.56; Jamaica Broilers lost 8 cents to close at $4.82 with 31,950 shares; Pan Jamaican Investment had only 350 units trading at $48.99 for a one cent fall; Scotia Group traded 45,965 units but the price slipped by 35 cents to close at $20.70 and its subsidiary, Scotia Investments, closed down a cent as it traded 16,550 units to end at $25.99.
Junior Market | The JSE Junior Market Index declined by 2.79 points to close at 740.55 and kept below the close of the previous week by 26 points.
Gains | Only two junior market stocks recorded gains with Caribbean Producers exchanging 240,000 shares to close at $2.75 for a 3 cents increase and General Accident Insurance 5,000 units to close at $1.70, up 5 cents.
Firm trade | Two stocks closed unchanged. Blue Power having 1,400 shares at $9.00 and Paramount Trading 11,535 shares at $2.88.
Declines | The four junior market stocks suffered price declines include Consolidated Bakeries with 447,896 shares at $1.05 for a 5 cents fall; Lasco Distributors 219,643 units in closing at $1.30 having declined by 5 cents; Lasco Financial Services closed while trading 195,700 units at $1.30, as it too fell by 5 cents and Lasco Manufacturing traded 46,241 shares with a 3 cents fall to close at $1.20.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 4 stocks with bids higher than the last selling prices and 5 stocks with offers lower.
