Rising prices hold sway on JSE

Activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, continues with a bullish bias and ended in the prices of 10 stocks rising and only 2 declining as 17 securities changed hands, ending in 4,801,191 units trading, valued at $30,772,622, in all market segments. The IC Bid offer indicator is pointing to continuation of rising prices having the upper hand, over declining ones.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 10 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and just 2 stocks with offers that were lower. This is a positive indicator for the market pointing to rising prices ahead.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index gained 190.04 points to 76,113.19, the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 212.50 points to close at 83,816.44 and the JSE combined index gained 192.73 points to close at 77,801.62.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Berger Paints finished trading with 46,668 shares with the price rising 9 cents to $1.60, Carreras ended with 195,379 shares, the price jumped $1.10 to $37.25 but at the close there was an offer to sell at $36.20, Hardware & Lumber ended trading with 2,666 shares changing hands to close 4 cents higher at $7.51. Jamaica Broilers completed trading with 2,325,782 shares with the price rising 4 cents to $4.10, National Commercial Bank contributed 420,000 units to trading and put on 10 cents to $18.50, Sagicor Group ended trading with 151,205 shares with an increase of 13 cents to $10.09 and Salada Foods finished trading with 19,200 shares as the price jumped 20 cents to $8.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Cable & Wireless finished with 156,869 shares trading at 50 cents, importantly, today’s trade exposes the offer at 55 cents with 95,000 units being offered and just above that, is 97,000 units at 58 cents. The highest bid is now at 48 cents for 1.8 million units. Caribbean Cement ended trading with 27,711 shares changing hands to close at $2.40, Proven Investments ended with 19,520 shares trading at 19 US cents and Scotia Group closed with 104,305 shares changing hands at $20.50.
Declines| The Gleaner Company was the only main stock to end with a loss as there was trading in 59,570 but ended losing 4 cents to close at a 52 weeks’ low of 95 cents.