Junior Market gains

Trading fell back to more normal levels on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange Thursday, with the volume of stocks traded diving 91 percent and the value 99 percent from Wednesday’s elevated high following a large block of Access Financial shares being traded, with trading in 40 securities compared with 42 on Wednesday and ended with prices of 15 rising, 18 declining and seven closing unchanged.
Investors traded 6,861,944 shares for $15,792,093 versus 72,320,927 units at $1,687,100,183 on Wednesday.
Trading averaged 171,549 shares at $394,802 versus 1,721,927 shares at $40,169,052 on Wednesday, with a month to date average of 568,76 units at $10,500,876 compared with 694,868 stock units at $13,709,154 on the previous day. March averaged 509,288 units at $1,071,868.
ONE on ONE Educational led trading with 1.22 million shares for 17.8 percent of total volume, followed by EduFocal with 1.03 million units for 15 percent of the day’s trade and Image Plus Consultants with 824,526 units for 12 percent market share.
At the close, the Junior Market Index advanced 5.7  points to 3,698.91.
The PE Ratio, a measure of computing appropriate stock values, averages 11.1. The PE ratios of Junior Market stocks are computed using the last traded stock price and ICInsider.com’s projected earnings for the financial years ending between November 2022 and August 2023.
Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows four stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and five with lower offers.
At the close, AMG Packaging popped 26 cents in closing at $2.94 after trading 50 shares, Cargo Handlers lost 31 cents in ending at $12.99 after 306 stocks passed through the market, Consolidated Bakeries dropped 15 cents to $2.01 trading 15,293 units, EduFocal increased 38 cents to close at $2.30 with the swapping of 1,029,901 stock units, Express Catering dipped 28 cents to end at $4.72 after exchanging 24,493 stocks, Fosrich rose 10 cents in closing at $2.61 in an exchange of 656,117 shares, Future Energy Source declined 11 cents to end at $4.10, with 540,987 stock units crossing the market, General Accident advanced 10 cents to $5.05 with 2,000 units crossing the exchange, Indies Pharma fell 29 cents to $2.90 and closed after investors swapped 119,732 units, ISP Finance shed $1.99 to close at $22 with one stock changing hands, Knutsford Express dipped 78 cents to $11, with 2,000 shares crossing the market, Lasco Manufacturing gained 9 cents in closing at $4.10 as investors exchanged 1,500 stock units, Mailpac Group rallied 12 cents to close at $1.84 with 96,082 stocks clearing the market and Paramount Trading climbed 20 cents to end at $2.40 after a transfer of 212,994 stock units.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.