Technical issues hit JSE on Tuesday

Activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange ended after major disruption to trading with the JSE suffering technical disruptions for the second day in a week. Trading ended with 10 stocks rising, 8 declining as 25 securities changed hands and ending in 1,461,974 units <trading, valued at $16,575,879 and 2 stocks closed at 52 weeks’ high in all market segments. The main market closed with 6 stocks advancing to 3 falling.
The JSE Market Index declined 159.12 points to 97,271.15 the JSE All Jamaican Composite index fell 177.86 points to close at 107,661.94 but the JSE combined index fell just 13.51 points to end at 99,998.57 thanks to gains in the junior market offsetting declines in the main market.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator was showing a poor reading of 10 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 with offers that were lower, an improvement over the ratio on Monday of 5 to 5. In trading, Cable & Wireless had 200,000 units changing hands to close at 45 cents but looking better than for weeks with bid at 46 cents to buy 201,436 while the offers at 50 cents declined leaving only 315,000 units at the price. With the company reporting profits from operations of $186 million in the March quarter from revenues of $6 billion, the highest in a March quarter since 2007, investors may be quietly going after the stock. The company confirmed that the quarter had some business to business sales in the revenue figure which helped to push improvement up by 29 percent. Caribbean Cement had 131,225 units trading at $6 after adding 50 cents, Carreras gained 70 cents in trading just 2,382 shares to close at $49. Desnoes and Geddes traded at $7.55 with 54,724 shares, Gleaner ended with 65,885 shares changing hands to gain 11 cents, for a 52 weeks’ high of $1.40. Jamaica Broilers fell 59 cents in trading 7,410 units to end at $5.41, National Commercial Bank in trading 20,960 shares, to close at $29.04, Pan Jamaican Investment had 18,780 shares changing hands 50 cents higher at $61.50. Radio Jamaica ended with 124,000 shares trading at $3.50, Proven Investments ended with 51,900 ordinary share trading at 21 US cents, Sagicor Group gained 45 cents with 22,385 units trading, to end at $13, but had 1 million units on sale at $13 at the close and Proven 8% preference share traded 155,695 units at $5.