The Jamaica Stock Exchange on Wednesday closed with main market indices dropping, with declining stocks far exceeding advancing ones. The market closed with a fairly high participation rate of 38 securities changing hands, resulting in 33,498,729 units trading, valued at $379,007,378 with only 6 stocks rising, 19 declining, in all market segments. The big jump in the level of trading took place with a switch in ownership to VMBS Wealth of the pension fund portfolio in stocks.
At the close, the JSE Market Index fell 262.83 points to 98,086.58. The JSE All Jamaican Composite index lost 293.77 points to close at 108,573.44 and the JSE combined index dropped 272.27 points to end at 100,777.77.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had a reading that reflects continuation of declining stocks having the upper hand over advancing ones. There was slightly less bias to the downside, than at the close of trading on Tuesday, with Wednesday’s reading of 7 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 9 with offers that were lower.
In trading, Cable and Wireless fell 1 cent with 110,387 units and closed at 42 cents, Caribbean Cement had 54,911 units changing hands at $8, Carreras closed with 1,149,666 shares trading 50 cents lower at $49.49, with the bulk of the shares being a product of the VMBS Wealth pension portfolio shift. Grace Kennedy closed with 1,400,261 shares trading $64, Jamaica Broilers traded at $7 with just 1,000 shares changing hands, with a gain of $1.40. Jamaica Stock Exchange traded 2,105,142 shares at $7.89, JMMB Group traded 8,582,455 shares, including shares associated with the VMBS Wealth pension fund change, to close at $7.52, Kingston Properties had 664,191 shares trading for a fall of $1.01 to end at $6.99, National Commercial Bank traded 569,187 shares to end with a decline of 73 cents at $28.02. Pan Jamaican fell 25 cents to end at $61 with 802,473 units changing hands, Radio Jamaica traded 37,900 shares unchanged at $3.01, Sagicor Group with 2,973,500 shares changing hands, closed 5 cents higher at $13. Scotia Group traded 198,010 units to close with a loss of 60 cents at $23.76, Scotia Investments traded 440,000 shares to close at $27.69 for a fall of 1 cent, Supreme Ventures ended at $3.40 with 13,828 units to be down by 40 cents and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 100,000 units to close at a 52 weeks’ low of $2.94, for a loss of 4 cents.