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.

Tuesday, 1st October, 2013 | The Jamaica Stock Market started October in a spirited manner when the level of trading rose on Tuesday with 10,321,856 units trading valued at $95,698,771. Activity resulted in 32 companies stocks trading, with 9 stocks increasing in price to 5 that fell. The main market index climbed 550.14 to 85,050.34, the all Jamaica grew 967.97 to 85,339.46 and the junior market index was up 5.21 to 774.04.

The movement in the market on Tuesday is in line with the IC Insider comments that “eight of the stocks with higher bids are in the main market and could well result in a better start of the new month . . .”

Main market | A numbers of selected stocks in the main market had good volumes resulting in some price movements but that could well be related to portfolio realignment than an indication of greater market interest. Cable & Wireless had a volume of 20,644 units as the price remained unchanged at 18 cents; Caribbean Cement exchanged 17,741 units at $2.10, gaining 23 cents in the process; Desnoes & Geddes chipped in with 15,000 units and closed frim at $4.57; Jamaica Producers had a good volume with 2,000,000 closing firm at $18.25; National Commercial Bank Jamaica 1,101,900 traded firm at $19; Sagicor Life’s 2,547,861 units helped to push the price up by 41 cents to $9.01; Salada Foods put in 100,560 shares to close firm at $8.50; Seprod’s 509,552 units help push the price up a dollar to $14.50; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% traded for the first time since listing last week as 499,000 units traded at $2; Proven Investments 8% exchanged 78,440 units as the price remained unchanged at $5.09 and Proven Investments ordinary stock traded 51,560 units firm at US11.9 cents.

Junior market | C2W Music traded at a new all-time low with 44,000 units changing hands as the price was down 4 cents to 93 cents. Caribbean Cream traded 22,776 units firm at $1; Caribbean Producers Jamaica 61,100 units closed unchanged at $2.08; Consolidated Bakeries saw an 18 cents climb in the price $1.39 with 35,200 shares trading; General Accident Insurance had 32,000 units going through the market as the price increased 3 cents to $1.85; Lasco Distributors 294,845 units helped to move the price down by 4 cents to $1.46; Lasco Financial Services 1,488,652 traded at $1.21, off by 2 cents; while Lasco Manufacturing 1,115,311 units gained it 4 cents to close at $1.55; Paramount Trading had 16,324 units with the price closing firm at $3.20.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed the market consolidating with bids for 5 stocks being higher and 6 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Monday, 30th September 2013 | Trading accounted for 12,298,941 units valued at $76,393,065 as the stocks of 24 companies traded on the last day of the month. The main market index was up 215.13 to 84,500.20, the all Jamaica index gained 378.51 to 84,371.49 and the junior index was up 7.02 to 768.83 as 9 stocks advanced to 7 declining.

The market measured by the all Jamaica and junior market indices was little changed during the month of September with the all Jamaica being up by a few points and the junior market down a few.

Trading patterns | During the last two trading days in August, the main market indices made noticeable advances as the prices of a few stocks moved up. However, on first day of trading in September, the indices dropped back wiping out the two-day gains. The all Jamaica index fell by more than 1,000 points and added more losses on the second day. By day three, the all Jamaica Index recovered all its losses but lost some more the following day. The last day of September is showing some of the same patterns as the last day of August.

Main Market | In Monday’s trading there were some big volumes, which included National Commercial Bank with 1,559,057 units valued at $29,309,186 with the price closing at $19 down 50 cents from Fridays close of $19.50. On Thursday, the stock closed at $18.60. Sagicor Life exchanged 1,029,279 units at $8.60 for a value of $8,851,610, the price gained 10 cents for the day. Jamaica Money Market Brokers was the other big volume mover with 1,491,600 units worth $11,929,695 as the price closed at $8, up 5 cents. Carreras traded 128,675 units valued at $6,045,561 as the price closed at $46.70 dipping by 50 cents; Caribbean Cement exchanged 42,236 shares but the price dropped 33 cents to close at $1.87; Gleaner Company traded 193,910 units at $1.21 up 3 cents; Scotia Group contributed just 12,265 units at $21.20, up 20 cents and Proven Investments 8% had 704,700 units trading firm at $5.09 for a value of $3,586,923.

Junior market | There was some pick up in trading in the junior market after prices for a number of the stocks declined to what could well be support levels. Access Financial Services put in a volume of 11,780 units as the price $8.40, down 10 cents; Caribbean Producers, which is again in the limelight with negative publicity about directors being charged for improper importation of meats into the island, traded only 16,188 units at $2.08, losing 2 cents on the day; Consolidated Bakeries chipped in with 73,386 units at $1.21, down 14 cents while Dolphin Cove gained 44 cents as it exchanged a good volume of 1,442,316 and closed at $8.45 as $12,185,925 was involved in the trade. Lasco Distributors contributed to the level of trading with 1,006,800 units at a closing price of $1.50 up 6 cents with a value of $1,509,838 and Lasco Financial Services had one of its best days’ volume wise with 4,373,000 units as it gained 3 cents to close at $1.23 worth $5,259,807.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed the market consolidating with bids for 9 stocks being higher and 5 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price. Eight of the stocks with higher bids are in the main market and could well result in a better start for October when compared to September.