JSE near 2 year high with 2,528 points rise

The Jamaica Stock Exchange enjoyed a major move at the end of trading resulting from the prices of 13 stocks rising, 5 declining as Scotia Group contributed a large portion of the movement. Overall 24 securities changed hands, ending in 4,719,358 units trading, valued at $68,565,889, in all market segments.
Main Market|The JSE Market Index gained 2,261.39 points to 87,351.52, the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 2,528.34 points to close at 96,381.35 putting it back in line with the close of 96,381.58 on May 3, 2012 and the JSE combined index gained 2,134.42 points to close at 89,072.22. Scotia Group’s price movement to $24.50 in early trading was the major factor behind the big surge in the main market indices, as such there may be a fall back on Tuesday as Scotia’s price seems likely to settle back well below the price of $23.81 used in computing today’s indices, unless other stocks move up to compensate.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows 9 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and just 4 with offers that were lower, with 2 of the offers being stocks that hardly trade.
In trading, Scotia Investments bought all Scotia Group’s shares to trade, in the early morning session up to $24.50, for a 52 weeks intra-day high, but the stock ended with 205,115 units trading to close at $22.10 with a 24 cents fall from Friday’s last sale price. Desnoes & Geddes traded 92,793 shares up to $5.90, with a 10 cents gain, Grace Kennedy traded 933,318 shares and closed at $62.01, with a total value of $57.8 million, with the price dropping $1.99 from Friday’s last traded price of $64. National Commercial Bank traded only 21,750 shares to close higher at $26, with an increase of 47 cents. Radio Jamaica 86,383 units that traded did so at $2, Sagicor Group 16,400 units traded at $10.50, Sagicor Real Estate Fund had 48,600 units changing hands at $6.75, to gain 25 cents and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 33,500 units at $3.10.
Kingston Wharves traded just 4,00 shares but ended up gaining 50 cents to close at $6.40, Scotia Investments gained 49 cents in trading 1,200 units at $23.50 and Supreme Ventures traded 4,000 units at $2.80 by gaining 30 cents.