Investors were less enthusiastic about trading Junior Market stocks on Thursday and exchanged just 27 securities accounting for 2,370,191 units valued at $6,835,545, down from 2,851,105 units valued at $9,931,668 from 32 securities on Wednesday.
Rising and declining stocks were evenly spread at ten each, with six ending unchanged. At the close with the index, adding a mere 9.28 points to close at 2,369.78 and only partially reversed the 36.90 points fall on Wednesday and the market’s PE ratio closed at 8.7 times 2020-21 earnings.
Trading ended with an average volume that is well below recent norms and finished with only 87,785 units at $253,168 for each security, in contrast to 89,097 units for an average of $310,365 on Wednesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 145,417 units valued at $376,592 and previously 232,941 units valued at $419,118. In contrast, 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 five with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Blue Power finished 10 cents higher at $3.64 with 45,200 stock units traded, Caribbean Cream fell 18 cents to settle at a 52 weeks’ low of $1.82 with an exchange of 14,355 shares, Caribbean Producers shed 10 cents in the swapping of 433,307 units to end at $2.30. Elite Diagnostic closed trading of 9,000 units and gained 11 cents to finish at $3.11, Express Catering gained one cent to end at $3.36, swapping 10,511 shares in the process, Fontana climbed 17 cents and exchanged 63,877 shares to settle at $5.07. General Accident closed 2 cents higher at $4.02 with 779,926 stock units changing hands, Honey Bun declined 10 cents in trading of 84,000 units to finish at $4.90, iCreate fell 4 cents to 40 cents with 29,297 units crossing the exchange. Indies Pharma shed 13 cents in the exchange of 29,379 units to close at $2.25, ISP Finance closed 9 cents higher at $15.99, with 500 stock units traded, Jetcon Corporation gained one cent to end at 87 cents, after swapping 125,336 shares. Lasco Distributors closed trading of 40,920 units and gained 21 cents to end at $3.21, Lasco Financial rose 10 cents to $2.70 with an exchange of 500 shares, Lasco Manufacturing declined 7 cents to settle at $3.87 in trading 3,000 units. Limners and Bards slipped one cent to $1.80 with 246,685 stock units changing hands, Lumber Depot climbed 9 cents and exchanged 62,061 shares to close at $1.14, MailPac Group ended with a loss of one cent at $1.67 with 340,725 stock units traded. Main Event transferred 18,100 shares to close at $4.25 after falling 64 cents and Paramount Trading ended with a loss of 1 cent at $1.99 with 900 stock units crossing the exchange.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.