Shares of Jamaica Stock Exchange dominated trading and accounted for 80 percent of the 18,689,826 units valued at $192,233,164 traded on the Main Market of the on Friday.
Main market activity, ended with 21 securities changing hands, of which 10 advanced, 6 declined and 5 traded firm. At the close, the All Jamaican Composite Index surged 4,523.22 points to 309,489.06 and the JSE Index climbed by 4,121.16 points to close at 281,979.52.
In the main market activity, Berger Paints closed $1.60 higher at $18.10, with 32,000 shares trading, Cable & Wireless settled with a loss of 6 cents at $1, with 360,865 shares, Caribbean Cement ended trading 30 cents higher at $32, with 42,500 stock units, 
Carreras traded 5 cents higher at $11.45, with 188,605 units, Ciboney Group finished trading 6 cents higher at 41 cents, with 20,000 shares. Grace Kennedy closed at $43, with 62,393 shares, Jamaica Broilers ended with a loss of 1 cent at $17.99, with 425,917 stock units, Jamaica Stock Exchange finished with a loss of 25 cents at $7.05, with 15,007,575 shares, JMMB Group settled 50 cents higher at $23.50, with 15,450 shares. JMMB Group ended trading 50 cents higher at $23.50, with 15,450 stock units, Kingston Wharves finished trading 25 cents higher at $32.50, with 37,414 shares, Mayberry Investments closed with a loss of 23 cents at $5.37, with 852,137 shares, NCB Financial ended $1.49 higher at $100, with 219,637 stock units.
PanJam Investment finished $2 higher at $45, with 11,000 shares, Portland JSX settled 50 cents higher at $10, with 200 shares, Pulse Investments ended trading at $1.78, with 29,000 stock units, Sagicor Group finished trading with a loss of 49 cents at $35.51, with 394,829 shares. Sagicor Real Estate Fund closed at $15, with 18,000 shares, Salada Foods ended at $9.95, with 500 stock units, Scotia Group concluded trading 5 cents higher at $53.99, with 305,536 units, Seprod finished at $30, with 298,745 shares and Supreme Ventures ended trading with a loss of 30 cents at $10.40, with 367,523 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 “Big 4,523 points surge in JSE index.”
Trading in the US dollar market, ended with Proven Investments US ordinary share having 50,000 units changing hands at 22 US cents and Sterling Investments exchanging just 100 units and rising moderately in price to 0.1221 US cents from 0.12 cents. The total value of trading amounted to US$11,012 with the US dollar Equities Index closing 2.24 points down, at 169.22.
In trading on the Junior Market Jamaica Stock Exchange on Thursday, 
The average volume and value for the month to date, amounts to 568,154 units valued at $2,642,716 and previously, 600,336 units valued at $2,793,615. In contrast, November closed with average of 107,477 units valued at $545,989 for each security traded.
GWest Corporation traded for the first time and ended at $2.87 with a gain of 37 cents from the IPO price of $2.50. Honey Bun finished trading with a loss of 50 cents at $4, with 11,850 shares, Knutsford Express traded 80 cents higher at $14.80, with 23,359 units, Lasco Distributors finished trading at $3.99, with 2,200 shares, Lasco Financial closed at $5.18, with 2,360 shares. Lasco Manufacturing ended with a loss of 1 cent at $3.50, with 121,239 stock units, Main Event concluded trading at $5.30, with 296,246 units, Paramount Trading settled with a loss of 2 cents at $3, with 33,833 shares, Stationery and Office ended trading with a loss of 9 cents at $4.90, with 50,780 stock units and tTech finished trading at $5.18, with 86,765 shares changing hands.
Kingston Wharves finished trading 25 cents higher at $32.25, with 3,640 shares, Mayberry Investments closed 20 cents higher at $5.60, with 100,000 shares. NCB Financial Group ended with a loss of $1.49 at $98.51, with 224,896 stock units, PanJam Investment settled at $43, with 51,064 shares, Pulse Investments traded at $1.78, with 500 units. Radio Jamaica finished trading at $1.03, with 20,000 shares, Sagicor Group closed at $36, with 2,285 shares, Sagicor Real Estate Fund ended 50 cents higher at $15, with 7,820 stock units, Salada Foods Jamaica concluded trading at $9.95, with 4,000 units. Scotia Group finished $3.74 higher at $53.94, with 168,006 shares and Supreme Ventures traded 20 cents higher at $10.70, with 168,705,372 units.
Trading on the Main Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange led to sharp gains in the market indices, with the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index surging 1,929.83 points to 307,095.43 and the JSE Index climbing 1,758.29 points to close at 279,798.65 as the year-end rally continues.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and the US dollar markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 11 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
Sagicor Group traded 50 cents higher at $36, with 150,298 units, Sagicor Real Estate Fund finished trading at $14.50, with 59,258 shares. Scotia Group ended 15 cents higher at $50.20, with 4,192 stock units, Seprod concluded trading at $30, with 7,781 units and Supreme Ventures settled with a loss of 20 cents at $10.50, with 1,400 shares. In the main market preference segment. In the main market preference segment, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.5% traded 220,000 shares with a loss of 10 cents at $1.80, JMMB Group 7.25% closed trading at $1.50, with 1,000 units and JMMB Group 7.5% ended trading at $1.15, with 223,424 stock units trading.
Trading in the wider market on Wednesday only 11 securities changed hands, resulting in an exchange of just 393,186 units valued at $1,610,823 trading down sharply from the 3,645,919 units valued at $16,409,735 on Tuesday from trading in 19 securities.
Caribbean Producers closed at $3.80, with 111,700 shares changing hands, Dolphin Cove finished 50 cents higher at $17, with 1,157 shares, Jamaican Teas concluded trading with a loss of 35 cents at $3.65, with 6,206 units, Jetcon Corporation finished at $4.40, with 3,000 shares. Lasco Distributors ended trading 14 cents higher at $3.99, with 107,138 shares, Lasco Financial closed 18 cents higher at $5.18, with 2,400 shares, Lasco Manufacturing ended with a loss of 14 cents at $3.51, with 75,281 stock units, Main Event concluded trading at $5.30, with 4,869 units, Paramount Trading settled 2 cents higher at $3.02, with 400 shares and Stationery and Office ended trading 14 cents higher at $4.99, with 80,934 stock units.
At the close of trading, the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index climbed 631.47 points, to close at 305,165.60 and the JSE Index advanced 575.34 points to 278,040.36. Main market activity ended with 21 securities changing hands, of which 8 advanced, 5 declined and 7 traded unchanged.
offer indicator reading shows 11 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
JSE board needs a huge shake up
Ian McNaughton, Chairman of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange needs to heal itself and fast, since no one else seems able to do so yet. There are some startling truths about Jamaica but not many persons want to talk about them.
The fact that we are seeing a repeat of this problem is a clear indication that there needs to be changes at the board level of the JSE.
One such truth, stock exchange board is not running the exchange in the interest of the wider investing public. The other is that the Financial Securities Commission is almost a waste of taxpayers’ money whether by government subvention or fees paid directly or indirectly by investors. If that were not the case how can the country explain that Berger Paints’ directors could make false statements about the acceptance and value of Berger Paints shares in response to Ansa Coatings offer to buy out minority shareholder and no one in authority called them to book and got them to support their claims with evidence.
In July this year, Express Catering shares were not being traded as demand exceeded supply by a wide margin and pushing the equilibrium price well ahead of prices that the circuit breaker rule at the JSE permitted. The stock did not trade for a number of days after listing, left to the rules as was being practiced, the stock would have taken much longer to trade than it finally did after management intervened. The same thing is now happening to FosRich shares that have not traded after two days of listing, with demand exceeding supply well above the permitted price of the JSE. When Wisynco and VM Investments list, one can expect the same situation to occur, unless the rule is modified.
Having hand the problem several months ago it seems implausible that the JSE has not moved speedily to correct what is clearly a problem when IPOs start trading. Why has the stock Exchange board not moved to correct what is clearly a problem for new listings. Why has the FSC not intervened to ensure it get sorted out, before new listings come to market?
Lest face some facts, time is money. The FosRich issue closed on December 4, as such, investors who would like to sell have to wait for nearly a month to be able to get their money out based on the Jamaica Stock Exchange price restriction. In the cases of Wisynco and VM Investments the situation will be vastly worse with both having protracted period to announce the allocation of shares much yet listing.
The Junior Market of the exchange has demonstrated the power of share ownership, to radically transform the economy and the wider society. Alas enough effort is not being given to it, the mechanical application of the circuit breaker rule is one such factor that is negatively affecting the market.
Finally, the Berger Paints takeover offer is once more pointing to the fact that a rule meant to protect minorities is not doing so at all, if it did how can one explain the fact that just over 6 million shares were surrendered as a result of the Ansa’s bid with the shares trading up to $18 since compared to an offer on $10.88. Clearly the big investors did not sell so it must be much smaller investors who are not adequately informed.