JSE | Lasco Companies dominate Tuesday’s trade
The Jamaican stock market index climbed today with the JSE market index closing up 436.63 points to end trading at 83,476.38. The all Jamaica composited closed at 81,895.10 up 768.89 points and JSE combined gained 379.09 points closing the day at 84,917.24. The junior market index slipped 8.47 points dragging the overall junior market down to 617.18. The overall market traded 7,166,418 units valued at $65,136,584.80.
Winners | Price movements were a little more pronounced that in recent trading sessions with JMMB jumping $0.86 to close at $8 as the stock traded 48,510 units, at close the bid was not strong at $7.10. Scotia Group recovered from yesterdays fall in putting on 50 cents to close at $21. Grace Kennedy having gained new life with Grace’s announcement to buy shares in the market rose yet again to close at $55.02 up 47 cents for the day on top of the gain on Monday.
Losers | Seprod shed 44 cents with a mere 769 units trading to close at $14.56, Supreme Ventures shed another 9 cents today to land it at $2.50 having traded at $2.75 on Friday last. Sagicor Life fell by 49 cents to close at $7.70 with 35,261 units trading on the day.
Kingston Wharves traded at $6 gaining 10 cents during the day, a twelve months high. The shares are tightly held and there is clearly upward pressure on the price, which seems likely to go higher. Barita lost 28 cents to close at $2.97 with 5,000 shares changing hands.
Junior market | Lasco Distributors with 1,597,000 shares trading at a value of $15.3 million changed hands today between $9.55 and $10.01 the stock closed down 41 cents at $9.59 and Lasco Manufacturing traded 4,512,900 units valued at $46.6 million between $10.10 and $11.05 closing the day at $10.15 own
The Lasco Manufacturing block was sold by Stocks & Securities with Mayberry picking up 1,009,100 units, NCB capita markets buying 3.167 million units, JMMB taking 146,833 units and 141,000 being crossed by Stocks & Securities. Stocks & Securities was the major seller of Lasco Distributors and NCB Capital markets the main buyer.
Bids above last sales | The following stocks had bids above their closing prices: this is usually an indication that prices will rise. These include Berger Paints, Carreras, Desnoes & Geddes, Ciboney, Jamaica Producers, Mayberry, Sagicor Investments and Scotia Investments.
TTSE | Cement continues domination
Cement continues domination on the TTSE when the Cement Group traded 967,380 shares with a value of TT$967,380.
Market activity saw trading in 14 securities of which 8 advanced, 2 declined and 4 traded firm while the total volume of shares traded was 1,028,095 valued at TT$2,075,106.23.
Trinidad Cement was followed by Angostura Holdings with a volume of 26,000 shares, valued at TT$247,000. National Enterprises Limited contributed 24,718 shares with a value of TT$385,506.58, while Republic Bank contributed 3,121 shares to the total, valued at TT$339,898.61.
Angostura Holdings was the day’s largest gainer, increasing $0.50 to end the day at $9.50 while Ansa Merchant Bank, suffered the day’s greatest loss, falling $1.50 to close at $38.50.
Clico Investment Fund was the only active security on the Mutual Fund Market, posting a volume of 145,943 shares valued at $3,064,985.90. Clico Investment Fund declined by $0.19 to end at $21.00. FORTRESS CARIBBEAN PROPERTY FUND remained at $5.00. Praetorian Property Mutual Fund remained at $3.40.
The Second Tier Market did not witness any activity. Fncu Venture Capital Company (Suspended) remained at $1.00. Mora Ven Holdings remained at $14.97.
ForEx Trading | Summary
Foreign exchange trading jumped today as Central Bank data shows US$45.3 million US dollars being bought by authorized dealers while they sold nearly $55 million. The average selling rate was J$99.348 almost the same as on Monday when the rate was J$99.36. Last week Tuesday buying was under $40 million while sales were just above it. On Monday, trading amounted to the equivalent of US$42.6 million of purchases, while US$34.75million was sold.
