Friday, 31st May 2013 | The stock market had one of the most active days with 33 stocks trading for a volume of 24,880,202 units with a value of $53,568,552. Although 10 stocks advanced in price with 6 declining, all indices fell marginally by less than 10 points.
Consolidated Bakeries had one trade which amounted to 18.3 million units at $1.01 each. This was a cross done by Stocks & Securities on behalf of clients. Two of the Lasco companies responded to the release of audited full year results with Lasco Manufacturing gaining 19 cents to close at $15.39 and Distributors gained 40 cents to close up at $15.
Results impact | Lasco Financial Services which released results after trading closed lost 35 cents to close the day at $9.80. The company reported earnings of $1.33, up strongly on the 83 cents earned in 2012. This should be enough to push the stock up next week.
Access Financial traded at an all-time high of $8 with 65,151 units changing hands. Carreras gained 45 cents to close at $60.45 with 9,324 units trading. The company had reported slight improvement in earnings from ongoing business of $6.14 versus $5.35 in 2012.
JMMB put on 50 cents while trading 1,169,369 units valued at $10.54 million. The stock responded to full year results to March with earnings of $2.35 per share compared to $1.55 in the previous year. The group’s earnings were boosted by a one-off gain of $2 billion booked when it acquired the shares of Capital & Credit Group last year, the effect of this was reduced by $750 million loss when government bonds were swapped out in February this year as well as $181 million written off for impairment to financial and intangible assets. Without these charges earnings would have been up to approximately $1.65 per share. In 2012 the group had picked up a large one-off gain from trading in certain security that was not expected to recur.
Late Move | Late in trading, National Commercial Bank gained $2 to close at $21, Pan Jam posted a $2 gain on to close at $57 with just 4,980 units trading. Scotia Group shed 74 cents to close at $21.06 after it traded as high as $22 with 306,220 units trading for $6.48 million. Scotia Investments lost 42 cents to close at $26.48 with 7,000 shares trading. Supreme Ventures traded 2.76 million units between $2.90 and $3 but closed at $3. in the junior market, newly listed Caribbean Creams traded 1.12 million units between a $1 and $1.10 and closed at $1, the IPO price.
Stocks that could move | At the close, 9 stocks had bids that were higher than the last selling price and there were 3 offers below the last selling price. Lasco Manufacturing closed at a 52 weeks high, Access Financial closed at an all time high. Kingston Wharves traded at a 52 weeks high of $8.50 but closed lower than yesterday’s price.
