The Main Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange traded in record territory on Friday with The market is trading at a record intraday high, for the all Jamaica Index of 325,588.39 having risen 6,583.63 points at 10.27 in the morning session while the main market index jumped 5,998.43 points to 296,647.83.
A rise in the price of Scotia Group up to $58 in the mid-morning session from a close of $52 on Thursday was the major factor in the big surge in the indices. The gain in the price followed the release of first quarter results showing increased profit flowing mainly from gains from sale of CrediScotia operations and major savings from reduced loan loss provisioning but with no growth in the critical loan portfolio. At the end of trading Scotia Group closed at $54.
At the close of trading, the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index jumped 2,729.22 points to 321,733.98 and the JSE Index shot up by 2,486.63 points to 293,136.03. Trading on Thursday closed with 28 securities changing hands, leading to 11 advancing, 10 declining and 6 trading firm, in the main and US dollar markets.
Scotia Group traded as high as $58 on Friday
Trading resulted in only five securities with the large price changes at the close. Kingston Wharves added $1.38 to move back to $40, PanJam Investment fell 95 cents to $41, Sagicor Real Estate Fund fell $1.99 to $15, Scotia Group rose $1.99 and Seprod dipped $1.99 to $30.01.
Main market activity ended with 6,404,825 units valued at $87,957,828 changing hands, versus 4,885,315 units valued at $99,343,789 on Thursday.
Ciboney Group closed with 1,362,000 units and 21.27 percent of shares traded, followed by Jamaica Producers with 1,101,566 units amounting to 17.20 45 percent of the day’s trades and Carreras with 798,192 units and 12.46 percent of volume traded on Friday.
Trading results in an average of 237,216 shares valued at 3,257,697 for each security traded, compared to 195,413 shares valued at 3,973,752 on Thursday. For the month to date an average of 796,886 units with an average value at $10,718,888 traded, compared to 878,567 units with an average value at $11,993,901 traded on the previous trading day. In contrast, February closed with average of 213,336 units valued at $3,392,475 for each security traded.
Trading in the US dollar market ended with Proven Investments concluded trading with a loss of 0.50 cents at 21 US cents with 260,631 units valued US$54,745 changing hands as the market index closed at 165.39 with a fall of 2.33 points.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 4 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 8 with a lower offer.
For more details of market activities see – Big advantage to falling JSE stocks – Friday.
