Trading closed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Thursday, with more than 5,000 points jump in the market indices, after crossing a series of record highs during the trading session and closed at the highest level in the market’s history.
At the close of trading, the All Jamaican Composite Index surged 5,792.25 points to close at a record 335,742.09 points and the JSE Index jumped 5,277.40 points to a closing record high of 305,898.98.
A total of 26 securities changed hands, resulting in 11 advancing, 11 declining and 4 remaining firm.
Trading on the JSE main market ended with the overall volume and value returning to more normal levels of 4,749,951 units valued at $102,233,802 units.
In market activity, Barita Investments closed at $12.09, with an exchange of 200 shares, Berger Paints ended at $19.50, with 16,000 stock units traded, Carreras closed at $10.60, with 5,130 units, Caribbean Cement gained 20 cents and finished at $39, with 47,447 shares, Ciboney Group rose 1 cent to settle at 13 cents, with 12,000 shares trading. Grace Kennedy added just 1 cent and ended trading at $50, with 2,369 shares, Jamaica Broilers traded at 52 weeks’ high of $23.20, after rising 25 cents with 10,703 stock units, JMMB Group jumped $1 and ended trading at $28.50, with 230,317 shares, Jamaica Producers lost 5 cents and finished trading at $16.45, with 24,901 units changing hands, Jamaica Stock Exchange closed with a rise of 11 cents to $7.30, trading 370 shares. Kingston Properties ended at $6.50 after falling 10 cents, with 1,800 shares, Kingston Wharves jumped $4 and concluded trading at $46, with just 500 shares changing hands, Mayberry Investments rose 44 cents to end at $6.45, with 15,504 stock units, NCB Financial Group settled 9 cents lower at $95.26, with 51,713 units. 1834 Investments dropped 18 cents to $1.06, with 3,500 shares, PanJam Investment finished with a rise of 65 cents to $50.65, trading 6,300 shares, 
Pulse Investments ended at $1.79, exchanging 40,100 units, Radio Jamaica lost 12 and concluded trading at $1.08, with 1,800 shares. Sagicor Group lost 50 cents and ended at $39.50, trading 2,674,599 shares and Sagicor Real Estate Fund lost 50 cents and finished at $14.50, with 1,600 units. Scotia Group gained 1 cent and ended trading at $53, with 2,019,507 stock units trading, Supreme Ventures closed with 48,970 shares trading and fell 10 cents to $12.90, Victoria Mutual Investments ended at $3.90, with 442,461 shares. Wisynco Group concluded trading at $9.80, with 5,360,241 stock units but fell 5 cents in the process. In the main market preference segment, JMMB Group lost 1 cent and ended at $2, with 300 shares, JMMB Group settled at $1, with 642,856 units, changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place. For more details of market activities, see “Jamaica Broiler grabs 99% of trade – Tuesday.”
Big 87 points drop for Junior stocks – Thursday
Blue Power in big drop of $9 to close at $28.
The Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange after enjoying five consecutive days of strong gains up to Tuesday and falling 57.67 points on Wednesday dropped another 86.91 points to close at 2,924.35 on Thursday.
At the close of market activities, the prices of 7 securities advanced, 11 declined and 7 remained unchanged with 25 securities changing hands from 25 securities changing hands on Wednesday. Market activity resulted in a fall in the quantity of shares trading to 5,590,001 units valued at $32,219,897, compared to 7,465,041 units valued at $55,063,474
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 6 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 with lower offers.
Market activity ended with an average of 223,600 units for an average of $1,288,796 in contrast to 298,602 units for an average of $2,202,539 on Wednesday. The average volume and value for the month to date, amounts to 166,390 units valued at $977and previously 151,011 units valued at $894,076. In contrast, May closed with an average of 217,589 units, valued at $1,322,452 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging ended at $2.10, with 3,874 stock units, Blue Power dived a sharp $9 to close at a 52 weeks’ low of $28, with 538,182 units changing hands, Cargo Handlers rose 25 cents to $9.75, with 735 shares, Caribbean Cream ended trading at $4.64 after falling of 46 cents, with 3,000 shares, Caribbean Producers declined 35 cents to $4.70, with 3,400 units. Consolidated Bakeries closed with a loss of 38 cents at $2.10, with 7,307 shares trading, Dolphin Cove dropped $1.10 to end at $16.80, with just 200 stock unit trading, Elite Diagnostic settled at $3.13, with 99,568 units, Eppley ended trading with a loss of 11 cents at $9.07, exchanging 1,000 shares. Express Catering traded with a loss of 37 cents at $7.43, with 16,619 shares traded, FosRich Group finished trading at $2.75, with 29,899 shares, General Accident closed 24 cents higher at $3.39, with 480 stock units, GWest Corporation ended at $2.30, with 580 units. Honey Bun ended trading 20 cents higher at $5.20, with 24,500 shares, Iron Rock finished with a loss of 5 cents at $3, while 4,243,672 shares changed hands, Jetcon Corporation traded with a loss of 6 cents at $4 and an exchange of 13,500 units,
Key Insurance finished trading 50 cents higher at $4, with 3,000 shares. KLE Group closed after rising 9 cents to $2.95, with 7,833 shares, Knutsford Express ended at $11.50, with 108,454 shares trading, Lasco Distributors concluded trading 5 cents higher at $4.15, with 124,100 stock units, Lasco Financial finished with 335,286 units trading and rose 5 cents to $5.15. Lasco Manufacturing settled with a loss of 20 cents at $4, with 6,070 shares, Main Event fell 44 cents to end at $7.56, with 14,867 shares, Paramount Trading finished trading at $3, with 2,000 stock units and Stationery and Office closed at $8, with 1,875 units. changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Lower Q2 profit for Scotia Group
Scotia Group reported a 19 percent rise in half profit to $6.76 billion after tax, but that clouds the fall in profit for the second quarter to April that fell marginally thanks to a big jump in loan provisioning of $560 million compared to a small recovery of $6 million in the January quarter.
The half year earnings are bolstered by a gain on sale of subsidiary of $753 million.
Shareholders don’t have much to cheer about except that loan losses are within the range of that of 2017 along with a few other good developments. Net interest income fell to $6.2 billion from $6.5 billion in April 2017 quarter, Insurance revenues fell from $1.1 billion to $707 million. Cost were contained well, with salaries and benefits declining from $2.84 billion in 2017 to $2,46 billion in the April quarter while other operating costs, rose marginally from $1.76 billion to $1.86 billion.
Year to date, net interest income moved from 13.17 billion to $12.82 billion while loan impairment fell sharply from $975 million to $564 million. Net fee income declined from $4.4 billion to $4.1, but gains from foreign exchange trading activities delivered $1.66 billion versus $1.1 billion in 2017. While the half year figures show a bit of positive signs, investors should be focused on more recent developments, as these are more likely to point the way forward.
The group made modest progress in increasing loans, the most important asset for a bank. At the end of April, loans grew to $171 billion from $166.5 billion at the end of 2017 fiscal year, the increase is twice the growth rate between April last year and the year end. Investment securities rose from $120 billion at the end of October in 2017 to $131.6 billion and cash resources from $116.5 billion to $126.2 billion, at a much faster pace than increased in lending. Deposits by the public moved from $260.6 billion to $383 billion.
David Noel new Scotia Group’s CEO.
Scotia ended with earnings per share of $1.08 for the quarter and $2.17 for the half year, including the one-off capital gains from sale of the former subsidiary. A dividend of 48 cents per share was declared by the board, payable on July 18.
The strongest positive for the group is that they currently lend out just about 52 percent of deposited funds by its customers, leaving much room to grow loans whenever that time comes around.
The stock traded on the Jamaica Stock Exchange and closed at $53 but with these results, further movement up is going to be very challenging in the short term and leaves NCB Financial as the banking group of choice for investors seeking growth in stock price.
AJI closes at record 335,742 points
The All Jamaican Composite Index (AJI) surged 5,792.25 points to close at a record 335,742.09 points and the JSE Index jumped 5,277.40 points to a closing record high of 305,898.98 as the market surpassed both the 334,000 and 335,000 marks on the same day, for the first time.
At the close on Thursday, 26 securities traded in the main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange climbed to 11,661,188 units valued at $284,601,737 compared to 4,749,951 units valued at $102,233,802 on Wednesday as the market scaled new heights. Previously, the AJI ended at a record closing high of 332,501.11 points on May 4, this year and drifted downwards, prior to today’s strong rally and break upwards.
The main trades were, Wisynco Group with 5,360,241 units to close at $9.80, amounting to 46 percent of the total volume traded, while Sagicor Group traded 2,674,599 units 599 accounting for 23 percent of the day’s volume and Scotia Group closed with just over 17 percent of the day’s volume, having traded 2,019,507 units, the next highest was Victoria Mutual Investments with 442,261 units and in the preference sector JMMB Group 7.5% trading 642,856 units.
Market activities resulted in 31 securities trading, compared to 26 on Wednesday, in the main and US markets. At the close, 12 securities gained, 10 declined and 9 traded firm.
Stocks with major price changes are, JMMB Group rose $1 to close at $28.50, Kingston Wharves jumped $4 to end at $46 and PanJam Investment rose 65 cents to $50.65.
Trading resulted in an average of 448,507 units valued at an average of $10,946,221 for each security traded. In contrast to 182,690 units for an average of $3,932,069 on Wednesday. For the month to date 217,527 units traded with an average value of $6,588,540 and on the previous day 158,650 units valued at 3,992,107 on average. May closed with an average of 589,414 shares with a value of $16,532.367, for each security traded.
In the US dollar market, 30,210 units valued at over $15,975 traded with Sterling Investments ; trading 15,000 units and adding 1 cent to end at 10 US cents followed by<strong> Proven Investments ; with 10,378 units to close at 19 US cents and JMMB Group 6% USD preference share with 13,352 units and closed at US$1. The JSE USD Equities Index rose 0.35 points to close at 162.73.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 5 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 4 closing with lower offers.
JSE trading at new record of 335,379 points
The Jamaica Stock Exchange main market is currently trading in record territory with the all Jamaica Composite index having surpassed the 334,000 mark around mid day, moved to more than 335,000 points just ahead of the close.
The market having surpassed the 334,000 points for the first time around midday, moved even higher to trade at level 335,379.45 points with 15 minutes to go before the close with a rise of 5,429.21 points.
The All Jamaica Composite Index rose 4,212.92 points to 334,155.76 points just after midday while the JSE index rose to 3,838,45 points to 304,460.03 points, Scotia Group trading at $52.99 and JMMB Group at $28 were the two major contributors to the market rise. Wisynco Group trades at $9.80 and accounted for the largest block of shares with 5.356 million units of the stock traded.The AJI ended at a record closing high of 332,501.11 points on May 4, this year.
The Junior Market at the same time plunged 64.06 to 2,947.20.Iron Rock traded 4.24 million units in the Junior Market and Blue Power traded 538,182 units with the price falling to $28 from $the last traded price of $37.
Juniors drop 58 points – Wednesday
Access Financial drops $6 on Wednesday, more than reversing Tuesday’s gain.
The Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange after enjoying five consecutive days of strong gains, declined on Wednesday by a whopping 57.67 points to close at 3,011.26.
At the close of market activities, the prices of 11 securities advanced, 9 declined and 5 remained unchanged with 25 securities changing hands, resulting in a big hike in the quantity of shares trading to 7,465,041 units valued at $55,063,474 compared to 1,630,055 units valued at $7,932,006 from 23 securities changing hands on Tuesday.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 4 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and 4 with lower offers.
Market activity ended with an average of 298,602 units for an average of $2,202,539 in contrast to 70,872 units for an average of $344,870 on Tuesday. The average volume and value for the month to date, amounts to 151,011 units valued at $894,076 and previously 96,749 units valued at $413,023. In contrast, May closed with an average of 217,589 units, valued at $1,322,452 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, Access Financial dived $6 to end at $47, with 120 shares, AMG Packaging ended with a loss of 10 cents at $2.10, with 67,094 stock units, 
CAC 2000 finished with a loss of 50 cents at $8, with 100 shares, Caribbean Cream rose 4 cents to close at $5.10, with 13,840 shares, Caribbean Producers finished trading with a loss of 20 cents at $5.05, in exchanging 25,000 units. C2W Music ended at 45 cents, with 25,000 shares traded, Elite Diagnostic settled at $3.13, with 48,467 units, Eppley ended trading $1.04 higher at $9.18, with 1,700 shares, Express Catering traded at $7.80, with 2,453,192 shares. FosRich Group gained 5 cents to $2.75, with 41,869 shares, General Accident closed with a loss of 15 cents at $3.15, after 32,000 stock units changed hands, Honey Bun concluded trading 40 cents higher at $5, with 42,404 shares, Jamaican Teas rose 10 cents to $5, with 124,213 stock units. Jetcon Corporation traded 6 cents higher at $4.06, with 140,299 units, 
Key Insurance traded 7,947 shares and rose 21 cents to $3.50, KLE Group closed with a loss of 14 cents at $2.86, in exchanging 2,000 shares, Knutsford Express dropped $2.25 to $11.50, with 1,790,027 shares changing hands. Lasco Distributors added 10 cents in trading 1,978 stock units at $4.10, Lasco Financial finished with a loss of 2 cents at $5.10, trading 1,263,476 units, Lasco Manufacturing settled 30 cents higher at $4.20, with 700,000 shares, Main Event climbed 65 cents higher to $8, with 93,893 shares. Paramount Trading finished trading at $3, with 1,498 stock units, Stationery and Office closed with a loss of 6 cents at $8, after 26,634 units changed hands and tTech concluded trading 35 cents higher at $6.10, with 715 shares. In the junior market preference segment, Eppley 8.75% settled at $6, with 561,575 shares changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Juniors brake year old downtrend
The Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange enjoyed two days of major index moves as express catering moved to two record closing on Monday and Tuesday and broke a one year downtrend.
The Market Index advanced by 41.64 points to close at 3,068.93 on Tuesday and with Monday’s gains pushed the 2018 gains to 12.3 percent, but the market still trails the peak of May 24 last year of 3,375.24 points. Importantly, the move upward brakes the downtrend it started just over one year ago, suggesting that the market trajectory may be up, from now.
On Tuesday with 23 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 1,630,055 units valued at $7,932,006 compared to 1,017,701 units valued at $4,780,851 on Monday from 22 securities trading.
At the close of market activities, the prices of 9 securities rising, 6 falling and 8 remaining unchanged.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 5 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 with lower offers.
Market activity ended with an average of 70,872 units for an average of $344,870 in contrast to 46,259 units for an average of $217,311 on Monday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 96,749 units valued at $413,023 and previously 109,975 units valued at $447,857. In contrast, May closed with an average of 217,589 units, valued at $1,322,452 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, Access Financial closed $1 higher at $53, with 100 shares, AMG Packaging gained 10 cents to end at $2.20, with 16,500 stock units, Caribbean Cream ended trading with a loss of 64 cents at $5.06, exchnaging 6,600 shares, Caribbean Flavours traded at $10, with 6,701 stock unit tradings, Caribbean Producers finished trading at $5.25, with 77,700 units. Consolidated Bakeries closed at $2.48, with 87,415 shares, Elite Diagnostic settled at $3.13, with 52,293 units, Express Catering traded 40 cents higher to end at a 52 weeks’ closing high of $7.80, with 258,423 shares, FosRich Group finished trading with a rise of 10 cents at $2.70, exchanging 242,838 shares. General Accident closed with a loss of 9 cents at $3.30, with 10,413 stock units, 
GWest Corporation ended 19 cents higher at $2.30, with 1,945 units, Honey Bun concluded trading with 174,441 shares and lost 20 cents to end at $4.60, ISP Finance dropped $2 to $15, with 17,300 shares. Jamaican Teas ended trading at $4.90, with 9,033 stock units, Jetcon Corporation traded at $4, with 48,100 units, Key Insurance climbed 54 cents and finished trading at $3.29, with 4,500 shares, Knutsford Express ended 75 cents higher at $13.75, with 7,444 shares changing hands. Lasco Distributors concluded trading at $4, with 277,173 stock units, Lasco Financial finished with a loss of 13 cents at $5.12, after 168,368 units traded, Lasco Manufacturing settled with a loss of 29 cents at $3.90, with 98,495 shares, Main Event ended trading at $7.35, with 7,870 units followed by Stationery and Office closing 6 cents higher at $8.06, with 31,803 units and tTech concluded trading 45 cents higher at $5.75, with 24,600 shares changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Junior Market jumps 62 points – Monday
Access Financial jumped $4 on Monday.
Express Catering rose to an all-time high at the close of $7.40 and there was a $4 jump in Access Financial to $52. Trading ended on Monday with 1,017,701 units valued at $4,780,851changing hands, compared to 3,931,183 units valued at $15,372,700 on Friday.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 7 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
Market activity ended with an average of 46,259 units for an average of $217,311 in contrast to 170,921 units for an average of $668,378 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to units 109,975 valued at $447,857. May closed with an average of 217,589 units valued at $1,322,452 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, Access Financial closed $4 higher at $52, with 500 shares, CAC 2000 finished with a loss of 47 cents at $8.50, with 28,600 shares, Caribbean Producers finished trading at $5.25, with 16,929 units, Consolidated Bakeries closed with a loss of 2 cents at $2.48, with 3,000 shares, Dolphin Cove finished with a loss of 9 cents at $17.90, with 1,000 stock units. Elite Diagnostic settled at $3.13, with 24,000 units, Express Catering ended trading 65 cents higher at $7.40, with 63,573 shares, FosRich Group traded 2 cents higher at $2.60, with 23,060 shares, General Accident finished trading at $3.39, with 900 shares. Honey Bun ended 5 cents higher at $4.80, with 1,100 units, ISP Finance finished at $17, with 200 shares, 
Jamaican Teas settled 10 cents higher at $4.90, with 1,000 shares, Jetcon Corporation ended trading with a loss of 10 cents at $4, with 360,753 stock units. Knutsford Express finished trading 50 cents higher at $13, with 956 shares, Lasco Distributors closed at $4, with 46,262 shares, Lasco Financial ended 5 cents higher at $5.25, with 51,210 shares, Lasco Manufacturing concluded trading 19 cents higher at $4.19, with 305,051 stock units. Main Event finished with a loss of 65 cents at $7.35, with 59,453 units, Paramount Trading ended trading 12 cents higher at $3, with 705 shares and Stationery and Office traded with a loss of 6 cents at $8, with 22,998 shares. In the junior market preference segment, Eppley concluded trading $8.14 higher at $8.14, with 1,000 units, Eppley ended trading at $6, with 5,451 shares, changed hands.Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
JSE trading back to normal – Friday
The volume of stocks trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange dropped to 4,603,241 units valued at $166,353,769, well down from 170,209,058 units on Thursday valued at $3,113,335,699.
The main trades were Grace Kennedy with 1,462,365 units amounting to 31.77 percent of the day’s volume, followed by Sagicor Group with 1,357,691 units for 29.49 percent of total volume and Wisynco Group with 721,410 units and 15.67 percent of trade.
Market activities resulted in 25 securities trading, compared to 26 on Thursday, in the main and US markets. At the close, 7 securities gained, 10 declined and 8 traded firm and the All Jamaican Composite Index surged 3,607.57 points to 329,083.46 and the JSE Index jumped 3,286.90 points to close at 299,832.21.
Stocks with major price changes are, Caribbean Cement declining $1 to $39, Jamaica Broilers rising $2.81 to $21, Kingston Wharves down 90 cents to end at $46, NCB Financial Group trading at $96 after rising $1, Sagicor Group rallying $1.30 to $38.30 and Scotia Group advancing $1.05 to $51.05
Trading resulted in an average of 200,141 units valued at an average of $7,232,773 for each security traded, in contrast to 7,092,044 units for an average of $129,722,321 on Thursday. May closed with an average of 589,414 shares with a value of $16,532.367, for each security traded.
In the US dollar market, Productivity Business Solution, ordinary share finished trading with a fall of 1 cent, to 62 US cents, with 618 units trading and Proven Investments ended with 13,475 units trading with a loss of 2 cents to 20 US cents. The JSE USD Equities Index lost 9.75 points to close at 171.36
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 2 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 closing with lower offers.
For more details of market activities see – JSE main market indices jump sharply – Friday.
JSE main market indices jump sharply – Friday
Bulls may be lurching to pounce on Jamaican stocks.
Trading closed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Thursday with, the All Jamaican Composite Index leaped 3,607.57 points to 329,083.46 and the JSE Index surged 3,286.90 points to close at 299,832.21.
A total of 23 securities changed hands, resulting in 6 advancing, 9 declining and 8 remaining firm.
Trading on the JSE main market ended with the overall volume and value returning to more normal levels of 4,603,241 units valued at $166,353,769, from the big surge on Thursday when Jamaica Broilers pushed trading 170,209,058 units valued at $3,113,335,699.
In market activity, Berger Paints ended at $19.50, with 1,562 stock units, Carreras gained 10 cents and concluded trading at $10.40, with 57,502 units, Caribbean Cement lost $1 and finished at $39, with 30,882 shares traded, Grace Kennedy fell 65 cents and ended trading at $49, with 1,462,365 shares, Jamaica Broilers recovered $2.81 to close at $21, with 19,907 stock units trading. Jamaica Producers lost 10 cents and finished trading at $16.50, with 80,429 units, Jamaica Stock Exchange closed down 39 cents to end at $7, with 25,500 shares, JMMB Group declined 80 cents and ended at $27, with 20,764 shares, Kingston Properties concluded trading at $6.60, with 200 shares. Kingston Wharves finished at $46 after falling 90 cents, with 3,395 stock units, Mayberry Investments settled at $6.45, with 10,756 units, NCB Financial Group gained $1 to end trading at $96, with 34,277 shares, 
138 Student Living settled at $4.68, with a loss of 31 cents trading 100 units, PanJam Investment closed at $45, with 69,332 stock units. Radio Jamaica finished at $1.25, after falling 3 cents with 25,100 shares, Sagicor Group added 20 cents and settled at $38.50, with 1,357,691 shares and Sagicor Real Estate Fund rose 30 cents and finished at $14.30, with 7,998 units. Scotia Group climbed $1.05 in trading 422,278 stock units to close at $51.05, Supreme Ventures closed at $13, exchanging 94,024 shares. Victoria Mutual Investments ended at $4, with 50,009 shares and Wisynco Group concluded trading with a rise of 5 cents to close at $10, in the exchange of 721,410 stock units. In the main market preference segment, JMMB Group 7.25% concluded trading at $1.50, with 1,000 shares and JMMB Group finished at $1, with 106,760 stock units changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place. For more details of market activities, see “JSE back to normal – Friday.”
