The bears took another swipe at Jamaica Stock Exchange stocks on Friday and, in the process, cut more points off the market indices at the close on Friday and still left the recovery from the lows reached in March intact.
At the close, the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index declined by 2,030.54 points to 425,749.25, the JSE Market Index fell 1,694.44 points to 388,060.38 and the JSE Financial Index lost 0.25 points to 105.75.
The market closed with 45 securities changing hands in the Main and US dollar markets with prices of 15 stocks advancing, 19 declining and 11 securities trading firm. The JSE Main Market activity ended with 41 securities accounting for 22,927,942 units valued at $89,687,496, in contrast to 146,823,904 units valued at $296,270,700 from 44 securities on Thursday.
Trans Jamaican Highway led trading with 15.1 million shares for 66 percent of total volume followed Wigton Windfarm with 2.8 million units for just over 12 percent of the day’s trade and Sagicor Select Financial Fund with 1.4 million units for 6 percent market share.
The Market closed with an average of 559,218 units valued at an average of $2,187,500 for each security traded, in contrast to 3,336,907 units valued at an average of $6,733,425 on Thursday. The average volume and value for the month to date amount to 984,827units valued at $4,072,790 for each security changing hands, compared to 1,022,515 units valued at $4,256,393 for each security traded. Trading in March resulted in an average of 1,146,245 units valued at $7,550,295 for each security.
IC bid-offer Indicator│ At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows eight stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and five stocks closing with lower offers. The PE ratio of the market ended at 14.1, while the Main Market ended at 14.5 times 2020/21 earnings.
In Main Market trading, Barita Investments lost $1 to end at $55, in exchanging 15,090 shares, Berger Paints gained $1.38 to close at $14, with just 2,500 units traded, Caribbean Cement shed 50 cents after transferring 32, 777 stock units to end at $48.50. Carreras closed 69 cents lower to $6.06, with 365,300 shares changing hands, Jamaica Producers declined to $19.12, with a loss of 88 cents in swapping 5,424 stock units, Jamaica Stock Exchange rose 74 cents to $22.91, in trading 117,624 shares. MPC Caribbean Clean Energy jumped by $30.58 after transferring 494 units to end at $180.58, NCB Financial Group shed 50 cents to close at $155, with an exchange of 105,674 shares, Proven Investments picked up $1.01 to finish at $38.10, in swapping 2,500 units. Sagicor Group closed at $49, with a loss of 75 cents with 434,646 shares crossing the exchange, Salada Foods lost 50 cents after swapping 7,102 units at $28, Scotia Group fell by $2.08 to $45.81, with a transfer of 34,866 stock units. Seprod dropped $1 to close at $45, in trading 8,911 units, Stanley Motta picked up 41 cents to finish at $5.03, in exchanging 6,000 units, Supreme Ventures ended at $15.48, with a loss of $1.52 and the swapping of 47,463 shares. Sygnus Credit Investments closed at $15, after losing $2.45 trading 57,900 shares and Wisynco Group ended the exchanging of 341,913 stock units at $16, with a loss of $1.10.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.