Stocks trading struggled to keep ahead of the opening levels on Wednesday and ended with 47 securities trading a decline from 49 on Tuesday after 16 stocks rose, 22 declined and nine remained unchanged, leaving the market with a modest rise, with the volume traded up 35 percent but with values down 43 percent compared to Tuesday on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Main Market.
At the close, the All Jamaican Composite Index advanced 1,181.64 points to 460,450.18, the JSE Main Index rose 759.06 points to end at 422,022.33 and the JSE Financial Index gained 0.05 points to end at 103.91.
Trading ended with. The PE Ratio, a measure that determines an appropriate relative value of each stock, averages 16.5 based on ICInsider.com’s forecast of 2021-22 earnings.
The market closed with 7,526,686 shares trading for $52,205,562 versus 5,572,104 units at $90,965,287 on Tuesday. Wigton Windfarm led trading with 37.4 percent of total volume for 2.81 million shares, followed by Transjamaican Highway 14.7 percent for 1.11 million units and JMMB Group 7.50%, 12.6 percent, with 950,263 units.
Trading averaged 160,142 units at $1,110,757, compared to 113,716 shares at $1,856,434 on Tuesday. Trading month to date averages 343,472 units at $30,518,104, in contrast to 362,662 units at $33,596,379 on Tuesday. June ended with an average of 249,610 units at $3,877,606.
Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading has 14 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and two with lower offers.
At the close, Barita Investments rallied $1.18 to $84 with a transfer of 6,045 shares, Caribbean Cement popped 85 cents to $92 in trading 132,354 stock units, Caribbean Producers gained 21 cents to end at a 52 weeks’ closing high of $5.19 with 259,401 shares changing hands, after hitting a 52 weeks’ intraday high of $6. Carreras lost 23 cents to close at $9.07 with an exchange of 402,107 stocks, Eppley shed 27 cents to settle at $43.63 in switching ownership of 2 units. First Rock Capital declined $1 to $14.50 with the swapping of 30,573 stocks, Grace Kennedy rose 73 cents to $99.01 after 16,832 shares crossed the exchange. Guardian Holdings jumped $24 to $674 in trading 382 units, Jamaica Broilers popped 33 cents to $36.33 with 44,887 stock units changing hands, Jamaica Producers rose 70 cents to $22.90 with 4,060 shares crossing the market. JMMB Group rallied 50 cents to end at $38.50 after an exchange of 169,493 stock units, Kingston Properties popped $2.24 to $10.25 in trading 97 units. Kingston Wharves rallied $2 to end at $50 after 10,960 stocks crossed the market, Mayberry Investments lost 36 cents to finish at $6.15 in switching ownership of 1,300 stock units, MPC Caribbean Clean Energy dived $17.35 to $117.20 with the swapping of 360 units. NCB Financial rose $1 to $140 in an exchange of 29,883 stock units, Palace Amusement dropped $60 to $1,190 in transferring 133 stocks, PanJam Investment rose $1.49 to $67.50 in exchanging 3,355 shares. Sagicor Group fell $2 to $53 in clearing the market of 118,645 stock units. Salada Foods shed 55 cents to close at $8.20 in an exchange of 46,065 stocks and Seprod fell $1.31 to $69.69 after trading 13,042 shares.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.