Junior market just inched forward – Monday

The junior market held on to a small gain at the close of trading on Monday, as it pulled back from a much stronger rally in the morning session. At the close, the market index rose a mere 0.83 points to end at 2,449.37 with increased volume over Friday’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 6 stocks rose and 2 declined with 10 securities trading, compared to 12 on Friday. The volume of stocks traded dipped on Monday by 28 percent, from Friday’s level, ending with 1,021,062 units changing hands, valued at $5,305,996, down 16 percent from $6,281,632 on Friday.
Market activities ended with 8 securities closing with bids higher than their last selling prices and just 5 ending with lower offers.
An average of 102,106 units with an average value of $530,600 traded, compared to 118,101 units with an average value of $523,469 on the preceding trading day. The average for December to date is 124,545 units, at an average of $570,520. The average for December to Friday is 127,751 units at an average of $576,223. November ended with an average of 109,679 units with an average value of $607,092.
In trading activity, Caribbean Cream traded 214,730 shares and closed at $7.50, Caribbean Producers gained 5 cents with 86,169 shares changing hands at $3.25, Honey Bun had 8,000 shares changing hands to close with a loss of 5 cents at $5.95, ISP Finance rose 50 cents to end at an all-time high of $8.50 with 10,000 shares changing hands. Iron Rock Insurance traded 6,063 units as the price jumped 50 cents to $4 shares. KLE Group closed trading with 78,500 units at $1.85, Lasco Distributors had 185,996 shares changing hands to close at $6.80, Lasco Financial Services traded 403,497 units and declined by 25 cents to $3.25. At the close, there were two bids to buy 1,003,050 units of Lasco Financial at $3.10 and an offer to sell 9,000 units at $3.40 and offers to buy 1,083,388 units at $3.50. Lasco Manufacturing gained just 2 cents and ended at $4.60 with 327,218 shares changing hands, Medical Disposables fell 31 cents while 41,586 shares traded, to close at $3.70 and Paramount Trading rose 18 cents with 62,800 units changing hands to close at $3.40.