Main market falters in Friday’s trades

Market activity ended on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Main Market on Friday, with the volume of stocks traded declining 33 percent and the value nosediving 48 percent from Thursday’s activity as rising stocks exceeded those declining by a moderate margin.
The All Jamaican Composite Index lost 1,581.75 points to settle at 449,770.77, the JSE Main Index slipped by 707.68 points to 391,898.55 and the JSE Financial Index lost 0.43 points to settle at 93.72. Trading ended with 58 securities compared to 51 on Thursday, with 25 rising, 22 declining and 11 ending unchanged.
The PE Ratio, a formula for computing appropriate stock values, averages 15. The JSE Main and USD Market PE ratios are computed based on ICInsider.com’s forecasted earnings for companies with financial years ending up to the close of August 2023.
A total of 6,597,987 shares were exchanged for $64,884,016 versus 9,880,109 units at $124,533,581 on Thursday. Trading averages 113,758 units at $1,118,690, compared to 193,728 shares at $2,441,835 on Thursday and month to date, an average of 229,769 units at $4,160,020 compared to 238,407 units at $4,385,460 on the previous trading day. April closed with an average of 532,209 units at $5,709,319.
Wigton Windfarm led trading with 1.89 million shares for 28.6 percent of total volume, followed by QWI Investments with 1.07 million units for 16.2 percent of the day’s trade and Pulse Investments with 885,391 units for 13.4 percent market share.
Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows nine stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and four with lower offers.
At the close, Caribbean Cement dropped $1 to $62 trading 23,340 shares, Carreras declined 64 cents to close at $9.30 after 129,765 units were traded, Eppley lost 85 cents in ending at $49.50 after exchanging 581 stocks. Eppley Caribbean Property Fund popped $4.27 in closing at $47.27 after an exchange of 25 stock units, GraceKennedy fell 81 cents to end at $109.99, with 14,815 units crossing the market, Guardian Holdings gained $6 to end at $530 after exchanging 56 shares. Jamaica Broilers shed $1.40 in closing at $27.10 after 3,829 stock units cleared the market, Jamaica Stock Exchange dropped 53 cents to close at $20 in trading 8,351 stocks, Key Insurance rose 30 cents to close at $4.28 with the swapping of 3,096 stocks. Margaritaville climbed $2 to $23 in switching ownership of 25 units, Mayberry Investments shed 74 cents to close at $10.26 while exchanging 9,664 shares,Mayberry Jamaican Equities fell $1 in ending at $14, with 68,279 stock units crossing the market. MPC Caribbean Clean Energy advanced $1.70 to $110.70 trading five units, NCB Financial lost 85 cents to end at $109.15, with 22,849 shares crossing the exchange, Palace Amusement increased $85 in closing at $1040 with an exchange of one stock unit. PanJam Investment rallied $4 to close at $66.50 in exchanging 5,567 stocks, Portland JSX declined $2 in closing at $8.60, with 20,000 stock units changing hands, Scotia Group declined $1.14 in ending at $35.80, with 701,451 stocks crossing the exchange. Seprod gained 49 cents to close at $71.99 in switching ownership of 25,036 shares, Supreme Ventures advanced $1 to end at $30 with an exchange of 43,555 units, Sygnus Credit Investments fell 32 cents in closing at $16.20, with 110,180 shares crossing the market and Wisynco Group rallied $1.48 to $21.48 in an exchange of 95,131 stocks.
In the preference segment, Eppley 7.50% preference share increased 33 cents to close at $8.40, with 101 stock units clearing the market and Jamaica Public Service 9.5% dropped $100 in ending at $3000, with 108 units changing hands.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.