Scotia Group dropped from at record high of $60 before nine months reuslts and fell to $45.05 after.
Investors pushed down the prices of Scotia Group from $51 to $45.05 within 2 minutes of the close and NCB Financial from $90 to $80.06, on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, knocking off around 6,000 points within 11 minutes of the close.
The sharp fall in the prices of the two stocks, pushed an already battered All Jamaica Composite Index, down by a record 10,134.09 points to close at 276,949.36 points, and well off the intraday high of 296,779.53 points, reached at 9.50 am on September 7.
Friday’s decline is the largest in a single day, exceeding the 9,295.39 points fall on April 2004, down to 94,329.90. In percentage terms Friday’s move ranked pretty low representing 3.5 percent compared to 9 percent in 2004 fall. The JSE Market Index fell by 9,233.31 points to 252,332.20 and the JSE US dollar market index rose 0.89 points to 186.68.
The market was pulling back from short term resistance level close 300,000 points on the All Jamaica Composite Index. the market seems to have closed around a short term support level and should be consolidating next week, to again challenge the resistance level. With Scotia Group report unattractive nine months’ results, it is unlikely to deliver the punch it did when the market was making new highs during the first week in September. The market is moving within an upward moving channel, clearly shown in the chart of the index. The odds favour the market moving within the channel for a while as investors await nine months’ results that will be the guide as to the direction of the market.
At the close of trading, 26 securities changed hands in the main market with 1 trading in the US dollar market, leading to 11 stocks advancing and 10 declining. The main market ended with 58,667,241 units valued at $128,145,103 changing hands compared to 5,966,372 units valued at $106,313,754 at the close on Thursday.
Trading in the US dollar market accounted for 219,700 units valued at US$52,495 bringing the total of all trades to J$135,021,959.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and US dollar markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 6 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
The main market ended trading with an average of 2,256,432 units valued at $4,928,658 for each security traded compared to an average of 284,113 units valued at $5,062,560. The average volume and value for the month to date, ended at 367,591 units with an average value of $3,438,723 compared with an average of 178,706 units with an average value of $3,303,275 on the previous trading day. The average volume and value for August ended at 184,094 units with an average value of $4,336,090.
