The Junior Market made solid gains on Friday even as declining stocks outnumbered advancing stocks, leaving the market index to close at 2,420.48 with gains of more than 50.7 points on top of the 9.28 points gained on Thursday, leaving the market down27.7 percent lower than at the start of the year.
Trading concluded with 35 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 4,856,519 units valued at $16,938,454 compared to 2,370,191 units valued at $6,835,545 from 27 securities on Thursday. Market activities ended with the prices of 10 securities rising, 17 declining and eight holding firm. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 8.6 based on 2020-21 earnings.
The day ended with an average of 138,758 units at $483,956 for each security traded, in contrast to 87,785 units, for an average of $253,168 on Thursday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 143,923 units valued at $400,680, and previously 145,417 units valued at $376,592. Trading in April closed with an average of 447,863 units valued at $1,028,076 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows five stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and three with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial Services rose 1 cent in trading 15,525 stock units at $22.01, AMG Packaging lost 1 cent to settle at $1.65 and exchanged 2,306 units, Blue Power shed 24 cents and traded 8,458 units to settle at $3.40. Cargo Handlers ended 40 cents lower at $6.10 trading 28 units, Caribbean Assurance Brokers finished 27 cents higher at $2.18 with 39,833 shares changing hands, Caribbean Cream rose 18 cents to $2 in an exchange of 13,522 units. Derrimon Trading gained 35 cents in the exchange of 183,134 shares to close at $2.15, Everything Fresh swapped 28,988 units and picked up 9 cents to end at 80 cents, Express Catering fell by 2 cents in trading 34,348 units to close at $3.34. Fontana gained 18 cents to close at $5.25 with an exchange of 28,018 units, Fosrich settled at $3.20 after sliding 64 cents in trading 32,650 units, General Accident closed 49 cents higher at $4.51 with 2,607,192 shares changing hands. Honey Bun gained 25 cents to close at $5.15 with 11,271 units trading, iCreate gained 2 cents to end at 42 cents with 410,100 shares crossing the exchange, Indies Pharma shed 20 cents and swapped 57,682 shares to end at $2.05. Jamaican Teas lost 4 cents trading 125,369 shares to end at $3.95, Jetcon Corporation shed 7 cents to close at a 52 weeks’ low of 80 cents with 203,442 shares traded. Lasco Distributors closed 16 cents lower in exchanging 406,571 shares to close at $3.05, Lasco Financial finished $2.60 after losing 10 cents and swapping 18,500 units, Lasco Manufacturing fell by 2 cents to $3.85 with 9,950 units changing hands. Limners and Bards slipped 1 cent after exchanging 9,144 units to end at $1.79, Lumber Depot closed 3 cents lower at $1.11 with 33,771 stock units trading, MailPac Group traded 210,434 shares to settle at $1.65 after losing 2 cents. Main Event rose 25 cents to end at $4.50 with the ownership transfer of 8,264 shares, Paramount was down 4 cents to $1.95 with 16,434 units traded, SSL Venture slipped 13 cents and exchanged 204 units to end at 75 cents and tTech lost 2 cents to close at $4.73 with a mere 54 units crossing the exchange.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.