Friday, 1st November 2013 | The IC Bid-Offer Indicator at the end of trading for the week and the first trading day for November is the strongest it has been for weeks with bids for 10 stocks higher that their last selling prices and only 1 stock on offer lower than the last selling price — a bullish indicator.

It would require more than a day with similar positive readings to confirm a sustained uptick in stock prices. What is clearly being indicated is that supply of stocks at the lower price levels is low.

The Jamaica Stock Market closed the week on a positive note even as the junior market index fell in trading today. The main indices moved up at the end of the day as 11 stocks advanced to decline of 5. The JSE Index closed at 82,190.30 up 358.14. The all Jamaica Index closed at 80,307.25 up 630.16 and the junior market index closed down 6.29 to end at 726.30. In overall market activity 4.2 million shares changed hands for a value of $25.66 million.

Stocks with meaningful activity are Caribbean Cement 49,749 units as the price closed at $2.19 up 12 cents; Carreras had 13,000 units traded up 5 cents to $40; Hardware & Lumber 11,600 as the price closed up 20 cents at $4.70; Jamaica Money Market Brokers had 10,650 units as the price closed at $8.12; National Commercial Bank Jamaica 74,867units closing up $1.49 at $18.49; Pan Jamaican Investment 11,800 unit traded firm to close at $48.01; Sagicor Investments 440,715 units closed at $15.99 while gaining 33 cents; Scotia Group 376,900 shares resulted in the stock closing firm at $20; Scotia Investments 2,000 up $2.48 to $28.5 and Proven Investments  8% was the only stock to trade in the preference segment as it resulted in 332,660 units at $5.09. JPS 9.5% non-redeemable preference shares were listed at the start of trading but did not trade nor was there a bid or offer at the close.

Junior market | Trading picked up in the junior market with Blue Power Group exchanging 75,100 units mostly at the closing price of $9.28; Caribbean Cream put in 18,000 units at $1.02 up 2 cents; Caribbean Flavours 35,387 units at $2.55; Caribbean Producers 860,000 units traded mostly at the closing price of $2 up 5 cents at the close; Dolphin Cove had 199,252 units changing hands at $8.25 as the stock gained 25 cents; General Accident Insurance had 31,830 units being exchanged ending at $1.65, up 3 cents; KLE Group traded 44000 units and hit another new all-time low of $1.37, down 3 cents while under pressure; Lasco Financial Services chipped in with 104,899 units at $1 down 12 cents and Lasco Manufacturing garnered 1,502,008 units to close at $1.45, up 4 cents.

Thursday, 31 October 2013 | Trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Thursday remained subdued with stocks of 28 companies trading resulting in only 4 advancing and 12 declining with a total of 4,568,270 shares trading valued at $23,381,135. The main market indices were up as well as the US dollar index but the junior market fell.

Main Market | Trading in Carreras has been picking as investors await the dividend and profit announcement for the September quarter; the stock had 33,706 shares changing hands firm at $40, Grace Kennedy had 8,050 trading to close at $55 up $1.30 while Jamaica Broilers had 35,994 units firm at $4.50. Mayberry Investments exchanged 74,524 units at $2. National Commercial Bank traded just 32,350 units to close at $17 down $1.35 at the end. Pan Jamaican had 5,640 units traded at the end at $48.01; Proven Investments ordinary traded 198,376 units at 11.61 US cents down .0029 cents; Scotia Group 248,654 units traded to closed firm at $20.

In the preference section, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% traded 1,695,797 unchanged at $2 and the 8.75% traded 339,373 to close at $2.98, which was off by 2 cents and Proven Investments Limited 8% traded 461,875 units to close $5.09.

Juniors | The junior market has been showing more signs of weakness and the market closed the day in that same mode. In trading, Access Financial Services changed 437,251 units at $8.28; AMG Packaging dropped 50 cents in trading 10,000 units to close at $3.50 in the aftermath of the annual results showing 48 cents earnings versus 47 cents in 2012. Caribbean Cream had just 13,000 units as the price closed at $1 off by 2 cents. Caribbean Flavours 7,816 units resulted in a close of $2.55. Jamaican Teas sold 423,959 units at $3.80, off by 10 cents. Lasco Distributors 389,600 resulted in an ending price of $1.45. Lasco Financial Services 75,744 units resulted in the price falling 3 cents to $1.12 and Lasco Manufacturing exchanged 50,900 and closed at $1.41, down 4 cents.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the bid-offer indicator showed bids for 6 stocks being higher and 6 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Wednesday, 30th October 2013 | Trading remained low on the Jamaica Stock Exchange with 1,231,072 units changing hands valued at $8,642,067 with the number of stocks advancing at 8 versus those 4 that declined. The main market index shed 35.94 points to end at 81,639.52; the all Jamaica index closed at 79.338.15 down by 63.23; the junior market index ended at 742.56 off by less than a point.

Main Market | Carreras traded just 6,007 units and gained 96 cents to close at $40. Gleaner posted 18,150 units at $1.11; Grace Kennedy chipped in with 71,100 units to close down $1.20 at $53.70; Jamaica Broilers exchanged 27,425 units up 24 cents at $4.50; Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 22,662 units to close at $8.12; Kingston Wharves had 27,000 units changing hands at $5.60 up two cents; Mayberry Investments had 78,641 units trading down 15 cents at $2; National Commercial Bank sapped 26,138 units in closing up 35 cents at $18.35; Sagicor Life 94,880 units traded firm at $8.10; Scotia Group Jamaica traded 26,090 units to close unchanged at $20.

Proven Investments 8% preference stock traded 292,600 units while closing firm at $5.09.

Junior Market | Trading in the junior market saw Blue Power trading 6,934 units to close firm at $9.28; Caribbean Flavours trading 7,882 units firm at $2.55; Caribbean Producers delivered 15,136 units to close unchanged at $1.99; Dolphin Cove traded 20,248 units at $8; Lasco Distributors traded 146,580 units to close up a cent at $1.46; Lasco Financial Services closed unchanged at $1.15 with 67,644 shares changing hands and Lasco Manufacturing put in60.600 units to close firm at $1.45.

IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the bid-offer indicator is showing a market that is moving sideways for a while, with bids for 8 stocks being higher and 6 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Tuesday, 29th October 2013 | The main indices show the Jamaica Stock Market falling sharply but there was a big improvement in the number of stocks advancing versus those that declined, from 5 and 15 on Monday to 4 advancing and 7 declining on Tuesday.

Unlike Monday, when the main indices climbed, the main market index was down 987.61 to 81,675.46 and the all Jamaica index closed at 79.401.38 down by 1,737.69, the junior market index also reflecting low investors’ interest sat at 743.05, a decline of 9.98.  The amount invested in the market dropped to a low of just $10.8 million while trading only 2.7 million shares.

Main Market | The level of trading was low in both the junior and main markets with only the preference share segment showing any serious volumes as Berger Paints saw trading in 10,000 units to close at $2.16; Desnoes & Geddes had 38,690 shares changing hands as it traded firm at $4.50; Gleaner had trading in 54,350 units at $1.11; Jamaica Broilers 16,522 units traded up 4 cents to close at $4.26. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 18,600 units at $8.1;, Kingston Wharves 17,226 units traded at $5.58; Mayberry Investments traded 89,821 at $2.15; Sagicor Life had just 9,000 units trading at $8.10; Scotia Group exchanged 28,864 units to close at $20 for a 10 cents gain while Scotia Investments saw just 11,800 unis going for $26.01 and Supreme Ventures 122,000 units went for $2.55.

In the preference segment, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% traded 134,500 units firm at $3 followed by Proven Investments 8%, 1,308,314 units, down a cent at $5.08.

Junior Market | Trading in the juniors was low as Access Financial Services put in a nice little volume of 55,000 units at $8.29, down by 11 cents; Blue Power Group lost some altitude, by 22 cents in trading 9,753 units to close at $9.28 while newly listed Caribbean Flavours figured with 9,860, as it closed down 10 cents at $2.55. Lasco Distributors put in a good volume of 700,703 units to close at $1.45 being down by 4 cents and Lasco Manufacturing 68,300 units cost $1.45 each at the end of trading.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator is showing a market that is moving sideways for a while, with bids for 5 stocks being higher and 4 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.