Wednesday, 23nd October 2013 | The local stock market has a history of slow days when there are government bond offers and today was no exception with a Treasury bill offer closing during the day.
On a very slow day on the Jamaica Stock Market, trading took place for 2,225,824 shares valued at $13,557,822 as most of the market indices declined marginally, with the Main Market index falling 16.36 to close at 82,304.35, while the all Jamaica index closed at 80,507.91 as it fell by 28.79 and the junior market index inching down by 3.25 to 751.32. There was trading in stocks of 22 companies, with 2 rising, 9 falling and 11 remained unchanged.
Main Market | Carreras exchanged 22,355 units to close firm at $40; Grace Kennedy 36,411 units changed hands, closing down 75 cents at $55.51; Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded just 3,650 units to close down 40 cents at $8.10; Pan Jamaican Investment traded 20,000 units to close at $48.01; Sagicor Investments exchanged 337,696 units and closed at $15.99, down a cent. Sagicor Life saw 55,000 units trading to close at $8.10, down 9 cents; Scotia Group only exchanged 14,748 units to close firm at $20.50.
Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference shares traded 486,600 firm at $2 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference shares traded 558,000 units, closed up 10 cents at $3.
Junior Market | Trading in the junior market saw Caribbean Cream with 500,000 units changing hands to close firm at $1.02, Dolphin Cove put in only 2,000 shares as the price closed down 62 cents at $8. General Accident Insurance swapped just 35,600 shares and closed down a cent at $1.61 followed by Lasco Distributors 20,000 units closing firm at $1.50. Lasco Financial traded 19,500 units at $1.17 while Lasco Manufacturing had 48,200 units that traded firm at $1.45 and Paramount Trading put through 37,810 units to close at $3.30 up 25 cents.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed improvement in market sentiment over Tuesday’s reading with bids for 4 stocks being higher and 3 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price. The junior market had 3 stocks with offers that were lower than the last selling price and bid for just 1 that was higher.
