Friday, 4th October 2013 | The Jamaica stock market closed down on the last day of the week as 11 stocks fell with 6 advancing resulting the market indices falling sharply. The JSE main index closed at 84,399.82, a decline of 640.92; the all Jamaica Index fell to 84,194.89 off by 1,127.68 and the junior market was down by 3.40 to 769.73. Trading volume climbed to 12,147,981 units but most were low priced Cable & Wireless and Gleaner Company stocks resulting in only $13,968,037 of trading.

Cable & Wireless landed 4,020,000 units as the price closed down a cent at 18 cents; Carreras exchanged 23,390 units to close down 90 cents at $45.10; Caribbean Cement chipped in with 167,905 units as it gained  cents to close at $2.20; Gleaner Company 6,900,078 units to close at $1.17; Jamaica Stock Exchange traded 20,000 units to close at the IPO price of $2.85; Mayberry Investments 10,738 $2.60; Sagicor Investments traded 15,000 units to close firm at $16.55; Sagicor Life 20,843 units at $9; Scotia Group 70,032 at $21; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% 100,000 units at $2; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% 70,000 $3 and Proven Investments 8% 39,650 $5.09.

Junior market | Dolphin Cove traded 27,141 units to close down 20 cents at $8; General Accident 35,000 units to close at $1.90, down 9 cents; Lasco Distributors gained a cent as 36,866 units changed hands to close at $1.49 and Lasco Financial Services traded firm as 436,543 units traded to close at $1.25.

Thursday, 3rd October 2013 | Investors came to the rescue of Carreras stock in today’s trading as the price closed up by $3 to $46 from Wednesday’s $43 closing prices. Investors bought 44,019 units between $42.99 and $48 before allowing it to fall to $46, the last traded price for the day. The big question is the sustainability of the rise with few very active bids amounting to approximately 50,000 on bid between $42 and $46 with quite some supply below $49 or lower. The eagerness, or lack thereof, of investors to get out will probably determine where the price goes in the several weeks ahead of the next quarterly results.

The all Jamaica Index closed down by 506.35 to 85,322.57, the JSE index closed at 85,040.74, decline of 287.78 and the junior market was up 3.31 to 772.63, on a day when 12 stocks advanced, 5 declined and the prices of 10 remained unchanged. There was trading in 8,723,711 units with a value of $181,118,390.

Big Trades | There was big trades in Grace Kennedy 503,800 units closing at $56.50 for a total value of $28.22 million as the price held firm at 56.50; Pan Jamaican Investment 1.87 million units valued at $91.5 million as the price closed at $49 down by a dollar; National Commercial Bank trading 2,844,771 units with a value of $52.4 million to close at $19.33, up by 33 cents after falling as low as $18.11 shortly before the close. The bulk of the trades in Grace was a cross by one broker amounting to 500,000 units but those for Pan Jam and NCB were trades with third parties. This suggest that there is wider interest in owing stocks by large investors.

Cable & Wireless traded 499,886 units and close up a cent at 19 cents; Caribbean Cement gained 12 cents and closed at $2.20 with 39,159 units; Jamaica Broilers 125,847 units resulted in a close at $4.60, down 19 cents; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 190,000 closing at $8 up 20 cents; Mayberry Investments 5,000 at $2.70 up 10 cents; RJR gained 8 cents to close at $1.40 but with only 100 shares trading; Scotia Group traded only 24,563 and closed at 22.84 up $1.54; Supreme Ventures chipped in with 27,100 units and closed firm at $2.55; Proven Investments 8% had 909,000 units valued at $4,624,810 trading, as the price closed unchanged at $5.09.

Junior market | Blue Power 11,000 shares were exchanged at $9.30 down 20 cents; Caribbean Cream 48,174 units traded to close firm at $1; Cargo Handlers gained 70 cents to close at $13.70 with 6,005 units changing hands. Consolidated Bakeries 67,110 units changed hands 18 cents cheaper, to close at $1.21; General Accident Insurance had 81,100 units changing hands, the price closed at $1.99, up 14 cents; Jamaican Teas 553,636 units traded firm at $4; Lasco Distributors traded 17,000 units and closed at $1.48 up 2 cents; Lasco Financial Services traded up to $1.25 with a 4 cent gain as trading took place in 394,595 shares and Lasco Manufacturing chipped in with 382,839 units with the price falling to $1.52, down 3 cents.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed the market consolidating with bids for 3 stocks being higher and 4 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Wednesday, 2nd October, 2013 | The main market indices climbed on Wednesday, the third such increase in as many days. Will these gains hold? The all Jamaica Index closed up 489.46 to 85,828.92, the JSE index closed at 85,328.52 for an increase of 278.18 and the junior market was down 4.72 to 769.32.

Scotia Group accounted for the bulk of the increase as the stock traded as high as $22.99 during the day but closed at $21.30 at the end of trading with 718,222 units. On a day when 4 stocks advanced and 8 declined there was trading in 4,123,904 with a value of $51,473,251.

Main Market | Cable & Wireless traded 525,000 to close at 18 cents. Carreras got hit again as news broke that sales are down 25 percent after the smoking ban was introduced, but investors failed to note that the figures represented an improvement over the 30 percent drop in the period prior to the ban due to overstocking by traders who made purchases to beat a price increase earlier in the year. The stock traded 8,031 units, helping to pull the closing price down to $43, a $3.61 fall. Gleaner Company had a small trade of 40,320 shares and closed firm at $1.21; Grace Kennedy closed up 50 cents to $56.50 with 81,795 units; Jamaica Broilers 31,404 units help the price to close at $4.79, costing it a cent from Tuesday’s close; Kingston Wharves  exchanged 23,144 to close a cent up at $6.02; Mayberry Investments 59,519 units traded firm at $2.60; National Commercial Bank traded 329,585 and closed unchanged at $19; Pan Jamaican Investment 23,798 units traded firm at $50; Sagicor Life 115,633 units helped in adding 4 cents to the price to close at $9.05; Seprod traded 1,399,582 shares to close at $14, down 50 cents.

Juniors | Trading in the junior market was sparse as Caribbean Producers had a volume of 152,977 units trading to close at $2.08; Lasco Distributors had just 12,582 units and closed firm at $1.46; Lasco Financial Services had 201,720 units in closing unchanged at $1.21 and Lasco Manufacturing traded 336,000 to close firm at $1.55.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed the market consolidating with bids for 3 stocks being higher and 5 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.