Junior Market jumps sharply on Thursday

Trading surged on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange Thursday, as JFP Limited dominated trading with more than 102 million shares that sent the volume of stocks traded surging 939 percent and the value 228 percent higher than on Wednesday after trading took place in 47 securities compared with 43 on Wednesday and ended with 28 rising, seven declining and 12 closing unchanged.
Investors traded 118,542,020 shares for $209,049,547 up from 11,405,529 units at $63,776,052 on Wednesday.
Trading averaged 2,522,171 shares at $4,447,863, compared to 265,245 shares at $1,483,164 on Wednesday with the month to date, averaging 309,922 units at $831,805 compared with 190,821 stock units at $637,126 on the previous day. May closed with an average of 239,954 units at $648,811 and exceeds the average up to Wednesday but below Thursday’s level with the jump in trading on Thursday.
JFP Ltd led trading with 102.22 million shares for 86.2 percent of total volume followed by ONE on ONE Educational with 4.86 million units for 4.1 percent of the day’s trade, Jetcon Corporation ended with 3.61 million units for 3 percent of shares traded, Fosrich closed with 1.51 million units for 1.3 percent market share and Dolla Financial with 1.18 million units for 1 percent of total volume.
At the close, the Junior Market Index rose 53.19 points to settle at 3,960.19 to be down 0.7 percent for the year to date and up 10.2 percent since this year’s low in mid-March.
The PE Ratio, a measure of computing appropriate stock values, averages 11.3. The PE ratios of Junior Market stocks are computed based on the last traded stock prices in conjunction with ICInsider.com’s projected earnings for the financial years ending between November 2023 and August 2024.
Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows three stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and three with lower offers.
At the close, Access Financial increased $3 to $25.50 in an exchange of 58,731 shares. Thursday’s takes place following a long period that the stock has struggled to move higher in price but has been trading in above average volumes since June 16, not seen for some time, excluding the last trading day of a month, with Thursday being the largest trade and follows just over 25,000 units on June 27, over 17,000 on June 26 and 43,654 on June 22 with three other days since the sixteen of June of more than 15,700 hares, this suggests something out of the ordinary can be expected. Blue Power rallied 75 cents to end at $3.05, with 43,155 stock units crossing the market, CAC 2000 advanced 43 cents to close at $7.07 in an exchange of 638 stocks, Cargo Handlers popped $1.99 in closing at $21 with 13 units clearing the market, Caribbean Cream climbed 20 cents to $4.70 after an exchange of 68,819 stocks, Consolidated Bakeries rose 9 cents and ended at $2.51, with 90,000 stock units changing hands, Express Catering gained 10 cents in closing at $5.50 with shareholders swapping 35,146 units, Future Energy Source rose 18 cents to $3.98 with a transfer of 336,638 shares, but only after sinking to a 52 weeks’ intraday low of $3.33. ISP Finance popped $2.04 to end at $22.04 while exchanging 806 units, Lasco Financial advanced 32 cents to close at $2.67 and closed with 402,641 shares changing hands, Lumber Depot gained 9 cents to close at $2.19 after trading 228,666 stock units. Main Event climbed 95 cents in closing at a 52 weeks’ high of $16.20 in switching ownership of 66,869 stocks, Medical Disposables increased 10 cents to $4.20, with 52,711 stock units crossing the market, MFS Capital Partners declined 9 cents and ended at $2.92 in trading 86,519 shares. Regency Petroleum rallied 11 cents to end at $2.60, with 556,398 stocks crossing the exchange, Stationery and Office Supplies rallied 11 cents to $23.50 as 95,854 units passed through the market and tTech gained 15 cents in closing at $2.25 after a transfer of 10 stocks.Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.