Junior market closes week with gains – Friday

The junior market held on to a small gain at the close of trading on Friday, as it pulled back from a much stronger rally in the morning session. At the close, the market index rose 6.87 points to end at 2,448.54 with increased volume over Thursday’s levels.
With today’s movement of the index, the junior market is up 37 percent for the year to date and appears to be poised to trade higher based on the number of bids closing above the last traded prices versus those that have offers lower than the last sale prices.
At the close the prices of 5 stocks rose and 6 declined with 12 securities trading, compared to 11 on Thursday. The volume of stocks traded climbed on Friday by 141 percent, from Thursday’s level, ending with 1,417,214 units changing hands, valued at $6,281,632, up 172 percent from $2,311,947 on Thursday.
Market activities ended with 7 securities closing with bids higher than their last selling prices and just 4 ending with lower offers.
An average of 118,101 units with an average value of $523,469 traded, compared to 53,416 units with an average value of $210,177 on the preceding day. The average for December to date is 127,751 units at an average of $576,223. The average for December to Thursday is 129,359 units at an average of $585,015. November ended with an average of 109,679 units with an average value of $607,092.
The stock split into 150 stock units for Eppley ordinary stock is yet to attract any offers even after the bid had risen to $6.96, compared to the adjusted last traded price of $4.90.
In trading activity, Cargo Handlers rose 25 cents and closed with 8,155 at a new closing high of $13.25 as the price pulled back from $15 it was at, for almost the entire trading session until the end. Caribbean Producers fell 10 cents with 29,846 shares changing hands at $3.20, Consolidated Bakeries had 3,000 units changing hands with a loss of 5 cents, to end at $2.15. Honey Bun had 9,700 shares changing hands to close at $6, Iron Rock Insurance traded 87,719 units as the price jumped 49 cents to $3.50, Jamaican Teas traded 100 shares to close at $4.11 after rising by 1 cent, Jetcon Corporation lost 5 cents in trading 10,991 shares to close at $5.90. KLE Group gained 24 cents in trading 500 units at $1.84, Lasco Distributors had 183,544 shares changing hands to close with a loss of 0 cents at $6.60, Lasco Financial Services traded 403,497 units and declined by 25 cents to $3.25. At the close, there was a bid to buy 1,003,050 units Lasco Financial at $3.10 and an offer to sell 1,059,388 units at $3.50. Lasco Manufacturing gained just 2 cents and ended at $4.60 with 616,264 shares changing hands and Medical Disposables fell 4 cents while 63,918 shares traded, to close at $4.01.