LascoD & Carib Producers hit juniors – Wednesday

The junior market closed trading sharply down on Wednesday with the market index falling 56.88 points, to close at 2,133.57. A 90 cents falls in the price of the Caribbean Producers inflicted much damage to the market index which fell by 2.6 percent, Lasco Distributors also chipped in with a 40 cents fall. Both stocks were the subject of new information that is negative for their stock prices.
A total of 11 active securities with only 777,300 shares valued at $4,030,252, changing hands. At the close, 4 stocks advanced and 5 declined
At the end of trading 7 stocks closed with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 ended with lower offers.
At the end of trading, AMG Packaging fell 71 cents in trading 5,854 shares at $12.41, CAC 2000 lost 6 cents with 22,385 shares changing hands, to end at $6.56, Caribbean Cream traded 5,260 shares and gained 5 cents to end at $5.10. Investors continued to react negatively to the release by Caribbean Producers on Monday, about a write down of inventory and other charges, by marking the stock down again by 90 cents, in trading 264,600 shares to close at $3. At the close the only meaningful bid visible is at $1.50 to buy 999,000 units, offers include 30,000 at $3.80 and at $4 a total of 135,000 units. Consolidated Bakeries gained 15 cents in trading 2,800 shares to close at $2.15, the stock was offered at $2.10 at the close. C2W Music traded 5,589 shares to end at 28 cents, Honey Bun rose 1 cent to close at $5.51, with 21,460 units changing hands, Iron Rock Insurance traded 5,000 shares and fell 5 cents to close at $3.25. Lasco Distributors dropped 40 cents while trading 342,459 units to end at $7, as investors responded negatively to news that Pfizer is countering Lasco’s huge claim of more than US$300 million, with their estimate of less than US$1 million. Pfizer had previously challenged Lasco over their right to sell tablets for hypertension and lost, resulting in the need to quantify damages by the courts. Lasco Financial ended with 64,000 shares changing hands at $3.42, after gaining 22 cents and Lasco Manufacturing closed at $5 with 37,893 shares trading.