NCB Financial sustained a loss of $22.99 to $145.01 but the impact on the market indices was contained as the JSE official closing price based on a weighted average was $158.68 for a fall of just $2.18 after trading 373,332 shares.
NCB Financial Montego Bay branch
At the close of trading on Thursday, the market indices had moderate falls, with the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index declining 167.68 points to 412,034.87. The JSE Market Index fell 151.78 points to 375,590.05 and the JSE Financial Index gained 0.58 points to 104.88.
Eight stocks closed trading at 52-week lows as investors pushed the majority of stock prices down and resulting in the following closing at the lowest prices in a year. Carreras at $5.99, JMMB Group 7.25% C preference share closed at a low of $1.69, Kingston Wharves at $42, Mayberry Investments at $5.20, Mayberry Jamaican Equities at $5.55, Sagicor Select Financial Fund at 49 cents, Seprod at $30, Sterling Investments at $2.20. Supreme Ventures traded at an intraday at 52-week lows of $11 but bounced by the close in trading higher.
The market closed with 45 securities changing hands in the Main and US dollar markets with prices of 16 stocks advancing, 23 declining and six securities trading firm. The JSE Main Market activity ended with 42 securities accounting for 22,241,264 units at $354,166,844, in contrast to 28,855,556 units valued at $738,643,824 from 41 securities on Wednesday.
Wigton Windfarm led trading with 5.7 million shares for 25.6 percent of total volume followed by Sagicor Select Financial Fund with 2.3 million units for 10.4 percent of the day’s trade and Sagicor Select Manufacturing & Distribution Fund with 2.3 million units for 10.3 percent market share. Barita Investments with 1.79 million shares and Jamaica Broilers, with 1.8 million shares, was the only other stock trading more than one million units.
The Market closed with an average of 529,554 units valued at an average of $8,432,544 for each security traded, in contrast to 703,794 units valued at an average of $18,015,703 on Wednesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amount to 699,037 units valued at $6,282,646 for each security changing hands compared to 711,658 units valued at $6,110,326 for each security traded. Trading February resulted in an average of 624,731 units valued at $3,239,665 for each security.
IC bid-offer Indicator│ At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows nine stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks closing with lower offers. The PE ratio of the market is down to 14.7, with the Main Market at 13.5 times 2019 earnings.
In the Main Market, Berger Paints closed 40 cents lower to $11.20 after trading 2,565 units, Caribbean Cement dropped $4.20 to end at $40, with 14,809 shares crossing the exchange, First Rock lost 50 cents swapping 21,974 units and closed at $9.50. Grace Kennedy slid to $58, with a loss of 99 cents in exchanging 67,814 shares, Jamaica Broilers settled at $24, after losing 99 cents transferring 1,356,488 units, Jamaica Stock Exchange fell by $1.25 to $19.55, with 47,774 stock units changing hands.
JMMB Group closed $1.39 lower to $35.61, in trading 466,367 shares, Kingston Wharves slid $1.60 to $42, in swapping 624,349 units, PanJam Investment climbed $1 to $80 with an exchange of 564,828 shares, Portland JSX advanced by $1.10 to $8.90 after transferring 31,000 units, Sagicor Group climbed $6.10 to settle at $52.10, trading 537,957 stock units. Sagicor Real Estate Fund closed at $7.99, with a gain of $1.49 with 4,798 units crossing the exchange, Salada Foods picked up $ 1 swapping 229 units and closed at $26, Seprod shed 50 cents trading 60,448 to end the day’s trade at $34.50. Sterling Investments closed 40 cents lower to $2.20, with 301,662 shares changing hands, Supreme Ventures rose 60 cents to $14.50, with a transfer of 874,523 shares, Victoria Mutual Investments shed 67 cents and ended at $6.33, trading 237,971 shares and Wisynco Group declined by $2.70 to $14, with 347,564 units crossing the exchange.
Trading in the US dollar market ended with 55,288 units for $26,920. The market gained 1.89 points to close at 209.79. JMMB Group 6% preference share gained of 1 cent, exchanging 15,776 units at US$1.01, Proven Investments traded 39,263 units at 28 US cents and Sygnus Credit Investments gained 1 cent transferring 249 units at 14 US cents.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
