Trading on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange ended on Wednesday with 20 securities changing hands, but with vastly lower volume and value of units than on Tuesday.
At the close of market activity 814,637 units valued at $3,966,483 traded compared to 2,385,216 units valued at $10,632,095 on Tuesday.
At the close of market activities the Junior Market Index declined by 14.78 points to close at 3,029.69 as the prices of 4 advanced, 9 declined and 7 closed with the prices unchanged.
Trading ended with an average of 40,732 units for an average of $198,324 in contrast to 108,419 units for an average of $483,277 on Tuesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 155,032 units valued at $669,622 compared to 169,320 units valued at $728,534 previously. In contrast, August closed with average of 234,437 units valued at $1,295,260 for each security traded. Trading ended with the market sentiments significantly improved for Thursday’s trading activity as 6 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 1 with a lower offer.
At the close of the market the volume of stocks changing hands and their last traded price are: Access Financial trading 2,429 shares at a loss of 50 cents to $46.50, AMG Packaging concluded trading with a loss of 34 cents at $3.14, with 6,000 shares, Caribbean Cream concluded trading 20 cents higher at $6.35, with 17,816 stocks changing hands, Caribbean Producers finished at $3.75, with 25,000 shares, Dolphin Cove lost $3.80 to end at $13.20, with 7,277 stock units, Derrimon Trading finished with a loss of $1.05 at $7, with 4,500 units, Express Catering finished at $4.60, with 27,947 stocks trading, General Accident closed with a loss of 4 cents at $2.80, with 34,950 shares, 
Honey Bun closed at $4.50, with 3,483 units, ISP Finance concluded trading with a loss of 5 cents at $19.95, with 2,916 stock units, Jamaican Teas finished at $4, with 204,059 shares, Jetcon Corporation concluded trading 1 cent higher at $4.39, with 35,309 shares, Key Insurance settled at $4, with 25,621 stocks, Knutsford Express traded at $15, with 5,258 stock units, Lasco Distributors ended with a loss of 1 cent at $6.79, with 700 units, Lasco Financial finished with a loss of 5 cents at $4, with 7,403 stocks changing hands, Lasco Manufacturing settled with a loss of 8 cents at $4, with 36,978 shares, Main Event jumped 94 cents higher to $5.50, with 359,831 stocks after the company reported strong increase in profits for the nine months to July of $101 million versus $60 million in 2016. Paramount Trading finished at $2.90, with 1,770 units and Stationery and Office concluded trading 30 cents higher at $4.80, with 5,390 shares.
Junior Market trading jumps again
Caribbean Producers closed at $3.11 with 3,612,085 shares.
Trading on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange picked up again on Friday with 56 percent more volume changing hands, a continuation on the 121 percent increase on Thursday and 110 percent rise on Wednesday over Tuesday.
The market closed with 24 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 6,448,734 units valued at $22,892,348 compared to 25 securities trading leading to 4,140,205 units valued at $15,416,896 on Thursday. Trading was dominated by AMG Packaging, Caribbean Producers with more than 1 million share each and Jamaican Teas with just over 670,000 units.
At the close of market activities, the prices of 8 securities advanced, 10 declined and 6 remained with unchanged, resulting in the market index, slipping 13.33 points to 3,066.28.
Trading ended with an average of 268,697 units for an average of $953,848 in contrast to 165,608 units for an average of $616,676 on Thursday. The average volume and value for the month to date are 180,947 units valued at $711,197, in contrast to 163,397 units at $662,667 previously. In contrast, August closed with average of 234,437 units valued at $1,295,260 for each security traded.
Market sentiment continues to look mixed at the close on Friday having implications for Monday’s activity as 3 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
At the close of the market the volume of stocks changing hands and their last traded price are: AMG Packaging settled with a loss of 10 cents at $3.40 with 1,410,925 units, Cargo Handlers closed 60 cents higher at $11 with 1,200 stock units, Caribbean Flavours closed at $11.80 with 7,020 stocks traded, Caribbean Producers settled with a loss of 89 cents, at $3.11 with 3,612,085 shares. Consolidated Bakeries ended with a loss of 28 cents, at $2 with 500 units, C2W Music finished at 50 cents with 12,646 stock units, 
Dolphin Cove closed with a loss of 30 cents, at $17 with 400 shares, Eppley concluded at $12 with 11,400 shares, Express Catering settled with a loss of 30 cents, at $4.50 with 130,851 units, General Accident concluded trading 4 cents higher at $2.84 with 10,300 stocks, Honey Bun finished at $4.55 with 5,594 stock units trading, Iron Rock closed 9 cents higher at $2.98 exchanging 51,650 units, Jamaican Teas traded with a loss of 52 cents to $4 with 670,589 shares, Jetcon Corporation concluded market activity, 3 cents higher at $4.48 with just 8,612 units. KLE Group closed with a loss of 50 cents, at $2.50 with 14,830 units, Knutsford Express closed at $15 with 610 shares, Lasco Distributors finished 14 cents higher at $6.99 trading 10,000 stock units, Lasco Financial finished 35 cents higher at $3.70 with only 1,455 units, Lasco Manufacturing rose 10 cents to $4.30 with 28,323 shares, Main Event closed with a rise of 25 cents to $4.60 with 54,116 units, Medical Disposables settled with a loss of 35 cents, at $5 with 44,040 stocks, Stationery and Office concluded trading with a loss of 2 cents, at $4.98 with 330,633 stock units, tTech traded with a loss of 25 cents, at $7 with 6,655 units and Derrimon Trading preference share closed at $2 with 24,300 units changing hands.
Big gains for 2016 IPOS
I$P Finance is up 1,100% since listing in March 2016 but hit an all time high of $35 earlier this year to be up 1,650% at that time.
Initial Public listings have been very popular in the Jamaican stock market. Most of them enjoyed strong gains within a few years of issue.
Investors have bought heavily into most of the issues resulting in most closing on the first day of the issue.
No doubt investors will be avidly awaiting issues to come in the second half of this year. Expecting this week is Productivity Business Solution IPO should be available of subscription in the first week of July and Express Catering should be coming pretty soon as well.
A series of others should be following later in 2017 and in 2018 with Stationery and Supplies expected to follow shortly after the above two, as they iron out a few issues before coming to market, while UCC Online still has issues to resolve. Others that have been recently mentioned publicly and a few that have not yet made public statements, should add to the excitement when they do make it and swell the choices available in the market for ongoing investment.
How have recent IPOS done since listing? Stocks sold to the publish and listed since the start of 2016 had mixed fortunes, with startup entities delivering little gains with 
one trading lower than the IPO price but four have gained 200 percent or more including one with more than 1,000 percent, one rising 64 percent and one with 34 percent, up to last Friday.
Little known micro finance company, ISP Finance gained a stunning 1,100 percent, since listing in March 2016. Pre-owned car dealer, Jetcon Corporation is up with gains of 687 percent since March last year with information technology, company tTech coming in with gains of 220 percent.
Portland JSX Fund lost 18 percent, while start up general insurance company, Iron Rock is up just 7 percent. All stocks traded at higher prices than the closing ones on Friday.
Trading falls for junior stocks – Tuesday
The junior market index lost 2.79 points to end at 2,413.51 on Tuesday as the prices of 3 stocks rose and 3 declined with 15 securities trading, compared with 17 on Monday. The movement in the junior market index still left the gain for the year to date at 35 percent.
The volume of stocks traded dropped sharply on Tuesday by 73 percent from Monday’s level and ending with 918,920 units changing hands, valued at $5,225,495, down 67 percent from $15,863,525 on Monday.
Market activities ended with 5 securities closing with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 ending with lower offers.
An average of 61,261 units with an average value of $348,366 traded, compared to 202,726 units with an average value of $933,149 on the preceding trading day.
The average for the month to date is 111,031 units for an average of $619,605 compared to 113,520 units valued at $633,167 on Monday and 129,138 units with an average value of $709,705 for October.
Eppley ordinary stock is yet to trade, after a split into 150 stock units for each one previously held.
In trading activity, AMG Packaging dropped $1.25 to close with 56,055 units changing hands at $17.50, Cargo Handlers traded 3,670 units and fell 50 cents to $12, Caribbean Cream closed with 220,000 shares changing hands and gained 14 cents to end at $7.39, Caribbean Flavours rose 11 cents in trading 1,000 units at $8.61. General Accident closed trading with 51,800 units at $2.65, Iron Rock with 5,000 shares changing hands, closed at $3, 
Jamaican Teas traded 16,460 shares to close at $4.10, Jetcon Corporation closed with 72,000 units changing hands for 1 cent higher at $5.02, after trading at a new intraday high of $5.25, KLE Group traded 2,243 shares and ended at $1.50. Knutsford Express traded 600 units at $20, Lasco Distributors closed with 104,223 shares changing hands, at $6.80, Lasco Financial ended with 377,603 shares changing hands at $3.20. Lasco Manufacturing closed with a loss of 14 cents at $4.55 with 2,876 shares changing hands, Medical Disposables traded 3,990, shares to close at $4.30 and Paramount Trading with 1,400 units changing hands closed at $3.50.
Honey Bun drops 80c in early JSE trading
Trading, early Monday morning on the Jamaica Stock Exchange continues the slow and moderate pace of recent weeks with few stocks trading over 100,000 shares. After 75 minutes of trading in the early morning session, on Monday, the indices gave up ground with losses in recorded in all the main ones.
Only three stocks that did are Consolidated Bakeries with 323,874 shares at $1.90, Honey Bun with 1,007,307 units but the price fell by 8 cents to $5 and Iron Rock with 187,915 units at $3.20 but still has 4,673,129 units on the bid to buy at $3.20.
Trading resulted in activity in 20 securities, accounting for a volume of 1,662,709 shares compared to as 11 stocks gained and 5 declined, including Jamaica Producers that fell by 99 cents to $48.01, with 7,317 shares changing hands. The average number of shares traded amounts to 83,135 units compared to an average of 45,191 units on Friday.
The all Jamaica Composite Index fell 233.06 points to 176,930.60, the Jamaica Stock Exchange Market Index dipped 208.39 points to 159,249.24 the Jamaica Stock Exchange combined index fell 200.32 to close at 170,442.94 points andthe junior market index slipped 1.17 points to 2,214.46.
Junior market drops sharply – Tuesday
Eppley added $59 to reach a new high on Tuesday
There were 2 stocks closing with bids that were higher than their last selling prices and 4 ended with lower offers.
At the end of trading, Access Financial Services lost 40 cents with 1,500 shares traded to close at $16.60, Caribbean Producers traded 500 shares to end with a loss of 10 cents at $4, Consolidated Bakeries had 7,085 units trading, to end at $1.24, C2W Music 5,000 units changing hands to close at of 33 cents. Eppley gained 14.75 percent in ending at a 52 weeks’ high of $459 with 5,300 shares trading with an increase of $58.99, on the same day the company had an extraordinary meeting to vote on an increase in the share capital by 500,000 ordinary shares. General Accident fell by 8 cents in trading just 100 units at $2.90. Honey Bun had 1,889 units trading to end at $11.50, Iron Rock had 125,840 shares trading but eased 15 cents to end at $3.85, Jamaican Teas closed at $4 after trading 9,242 units.
Jetcon Corporation closed at $2.90 after 395,110 shares changed hands, Key Insurance lost 10 cents to close at $2.75 with 79,823 units changing hands. KLE Group closed at $1.70 after rising by 5 cents with 6,795 shares changing hands, Knutsford Express closed with 57,252 units changing hands at $17.50 with a loss of $4.50, Lasco Distributors lost 70 cents and ended with 362,475 units trading to close at $4.90. Lasco Financial ended at $2.75 with 16,900 shares changing hands, Lasco Manufacturing ended with 125,020 shares changing hands and loss of 59 cents to close at $3.06, tTech traded 2,500 shares to end at $4.30 and Derrimon Trading preference share ended with a gain of 1 cent as 267,000 un inits traded to close at $2.17.
Junior market slipped slightly – Friday
Key Insurance Company that listed on Thursday traded at $2.60 on Friday today above the Initial Public offering price (IPO) of $2.27. ISP Finance that was listed earlier in the week did not traded on Friday with a wide gap between the bid at $2.15 the offer price of $3, the stock traded at $2.50 on the opening day. Jetcon Coporation that was listed on the day before Easter, traded to close at $2.90, but went as high as $2.99 compared to the IPO price of $2.25.
At the close, the junior market index fell 6.29 points being added to close at 1,918.93. The market ended with 21 active securities, 4 of which advanced and 10 declined as a mere 988,659 units changed hands, valued at $3,655,969. There were 4 stocks closing with bids that were higher than their last selling prices and 3 ended with lower offers.
In trading, AMG Packaging closed with a gain of 10 cents at $11.10 with 27,099 units changing hands, CAC 2000 traded 1,000 shares and lost 47 cents to end at $6.53, Caribbean Cream traded 22,085 shares as the price rose 35 cents to end at $4.75, Caribbean Flavours had 5,300 shares changing hands to end at $7.55. Caribbean Producers traded 3,000 shares to end with a loss of 10 cents at $4.70, Consolidated Bakeries had 29,073 units trading, with a rise of 10 cents to end at $1.25, C2W Music fell 3 cents with 4,000 units changing hands to close at 37 cents. Derrimon Trading closed with 950 shares changing hands as the price slipped 21 cents to end at $4, Honey Bun had 26,150 units trading but lost 2 cents to end at $11.01, Iron Rock had 5,000 shares trading at $4, Jamaican Teas closed at $3.80 after trading 28,510 units.
Jetcon Corporation closed at $2.90 after trading 306,956 shares, Key Insurance traded at a new high of $2.60 as 40,000 units changed hands with the price gaining 33 cents on the IPO price. KLE Group dropped 45 cents to close at $1.65 with 201,343 shares changing hands, Knutsford Express closed with 119 units changing hands to end at $22, Lasco Distributors lost 15 cents and ended with 177,390 units trading at $5.65. Lasco Financial ended at $3 with 7,077 shares changing hands, Lasco Manufacturing ended with 60,107 shares changing hands to close at $3.55, with a loss of 15 cents, Medical Disposables closed with a loss of 12 cents with 18,000 shares trading at $3.30 and tTech fell 48 cents with 17,500 shares trading to end at $4.
Sharp fall for JSE – Tuesday
Iron Rock Insurance traded for the first time since it went public earlier in March with 1,000 shares changing hands at $3.51 and is up from $3 per share it was offered to the public at.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange has gotten off to a rocky start on Tuesday big losses the main market indices in early trading but the junior market enjoyed moderate gain. Fall in the prices of some big capitalization stocks rock the indices. Falling are Cable & Wireless with a loss of 5 cents to $1.37, National Commercial at $40.5o down 50 cents, 
Sagicor Group lost 95 cents to be trading at $22.05, Scotia Group lost $54 cents to be at $30.46 and Scotia Investments trades at $26.30 down from $28.
After 75 minutes of the market’s opening, 29 securities traded, accounting for 11,795,810 shares changing hands. A total of 5 stocks gained and 13 declined.
The all Jamaica Composite Index dropped 2,026.54 points to 168,402.89, the JSE Market Index slipped 1,813.37 points to 151,622.41, the JSE combined index ended with a fall of 1,532.81 points to 160,439 but the junior market index rose gained 19.26 points to 1,934.03.
Jamaica Broilers traded 3,268,865 shares at $14.50, JMMB Group 7.50% traded 8,000,000 units but fell 13 cents to $1.07. Cargo Handlers traded at a new high of $43 with only 126 units changing hands and Lasco Manufacturing traded 8,450 units at $3.90 versus $3.50 it closed at on Monday.
Jetcon revs up for junior market
Jetcon Corporation is heading to the junior market, if their invitation to sell 44.5 million shares up to $2.25 each to the public, is successful. The share offer opens on Monday March 14 and is slated to close a few days later, on the 17th.
Successful completion of the issue, would bring the total number of junior market ordinary share listings, to 27 and the total listings to 31 securities, with Iron Rock having successfully completed their public offering on March 1st.
Jetcon enjoyed strong 49.9 percent growth in revenues of $523 million in 2015 up from $349 million in 2014. Revenues since 2015 continued to grow, increasing by 45 percent. The company recorded profit before tax of $50.6 million in 2015 with a net profit of $40 million.
The offer expects to raise up to $95.66 million for use by the company to fund the cost of listing and for working capital purposes.
Jetcon started operation 1994 to import used cars from Japan for resale in Jamaica.
Iron Rock IPO hits market shortly
Iron Rock Insurance is one of 5 junior market companies poised to hit the market between February and March, ahead of the deadline for the ending of the tax break, accorded junior market companies.
Iron Rock is expected to be capitalized at just under $500 million and has as two of its principals William McConnell formerly managing director of Lascelles deMercado who use to own Globe Insurance Company and Evan Thwaites former of Globe Insurance.
Informed sources tell IC Insider that the prospectus should be out by the February 22, with the issue to be opened before the end of the month.
Mayberry Investments are the brokers for Iron Rock while JMMB Securities is handling two issues. The new listings if they are all approved, will raise the number of junior market listings to 34 and the number of companies listed to 30. In contrast the main market and the US dollar market has 35 companies listed plus a number of preference shares issued by companies with ordinary share listing.
The main market has almost stagnated and seems set to contract with two main market companies, that of Hardware and Lumber and Desnoes and Geddes look set to be delisted.
