Soft November start for JSE main market

The main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange opened November with the major indices falling marginally as declining stocks beat out rising ones.
At the close, the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index declined 674.79 points to close at 543,079.52; the JSE Index lost 611.43 points to 494,576.50 and the JSE Financial Index was down 0.15 points to close at 134.41.
Trading closed with 40 securities changing hands in the main and US dollar markets with 12 advancing, 18 declining and 10 traded firm. Main market activity ended with 38 securities trading 11,107,535 units valued at $113,371,137, in contrast to 38,125,741 units valued at $101,388,568 on Thursday with 40 securities trading.
Sagicor Select Funds dominated trading with 3.8 million shares for 34 percent of total volume, followed by Wigton Windfarm with 3.1 million units accounting for 28 percent of the day’s trade and Wisynco with 816,449 shares for 7 percent of the market’s trade.
The market closed with an average of 292,304 units valued at $2,983,451 for each security traded, in contrast to 953,144 units valued at an average of $2,534,714 on Thursday. The market closed out October with an average of 957,488 units valued at $13,947,047 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 9 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 1 with lower offers. The PE ratio of the market ended at 17 with the main market ending at 17.8 times 2019 current year’s earnings.
In main market activity, Barita Investments gained 50 cents to close at $70.50 after trading 55,812 shares, Caribbean Cement lost 50 cents to end at $77, after exchanging 52,135 units, Carreras dropped 90 cents trading 612,631 stock units to settle at $7.90, Eppley dropped $1.50 to close at $14.50, after swapping 680 shares. Grace Kennedy closed $1.49 lower to $66, with 77,510 stock units changing hands, Jamaica Producers gained $1.10, ending at $24 with 3,651 units traded, Jamaica Stock Exchange lost 40 cents to close at $29.10, with 43,202 shares crossing the exchange. JMMB Group closed 30 cents lower at $42.70 in trading 19,543 stock units, Mayberry Investments lost 35 cents, to settle at $7.15 with 215,225 shares changing hands, NCB Financial gained $2 to close at $205, after swapping 43,196 stock units. PanJam Investment closed at $98, after losing $2 with 19,021 units traded, Pulse Investments lost 30 cents exchanging 17,920 shares to end at $4.40, Sagicor Group declined $2 to $64, with 53,384 shares traded. Sagicor Real Estate Fund closed 39 cents lower at $11.50, in swapping 44,315 stock units, Salada Foods advanced $2.70 to $32, in exchanging 26,000 units, Scotia Group climbed $3.99 and ended at $58.99, trading 603,998 shares, Seprod closed $1.50 lower to $52.50 with 2,003 units traded. Stanley Motta lost 54 cents to end at $5.20, with 19,600 shares changing hands, Supreme Ventures gained 83 cents to close at $25.98, with an exchange of 472,471 shares and Wisynco Group surged $1.50 in swapping 816,449 shares to close at $23.50 as investors responded positively to the Group’s strong September quarterly results with profit jumping 53 percent.
Trading in the US dollar market ended with 42,285 units traded at US$1,396 with the market index gaining 0.23 points to close at 202.79. Sterling Investments gained 0.2 US cents trading 39,000 units to close at 2.4 US cents and Sygnus Credit Investments exchanged 3,285 shares at 14 US cents.