Lasco companies lift trading on junior market

Just outside Jamaica’s old capital, Spanish Town at White Marl in St Catherine Fresh sits Lasco Manufacturing’s impressive new factory and warehousing facilities, the venue for an analyst and brokerage house tour on Thursday.
The executives of all three Lasco listed companies, hosted a briefing at which the companies performance for the financial year to March this year and results for the June 2014 quarter, were highlighted, along with explanations for some of the new developments, including the addition of more warehousing space, to meet projected increased demand and some of the prospects for growth going forward.
Fresh on the heels of the tour, the two main Lasco companies that will directly benefit from the expansion, traded the largest quantity for some time. Lasco Distributors traded 1.26 million shares and Lasco Manufacturing 1.78 million units.
The Junior Market had trading in 3,828,805 units valued at $4,547,128. The last time the junior market traded with such volume is September 9 when nearly 19 million units were traded. At the close of the market, the JSE Junior Market Index fell 3.01 points to close at 667.90. Only 4 securities traded, none advanced while 2 declined.
At the close of the market, there were 2 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks with offers that were lower. The likelihood of continuing weakness is reflected in the 9 stocks that had no bids to buy, against 6 that had no stocks being offered for sale.
In trading, General Accident with 613,089 shares lost 7 cents to end at $1.62, Medical Disposables closed at the lowest price since it was listed in December last year, by shedding 12 cents in ending at $1.88, while trading 172,587 shares. The stock price is close to the IPO price of $1.83. Lasco Distributors traded 1,264,872 units at $1.15 and Lasco Manufacturing traded 1,778,257 shares to close at $1.