Grace Kennedy shares ended at a 52 weeks’ closing high on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
The JSE Market Index jumped 2,358.31 points to end at 162,282.21 the all Jamaica Composite Index surged 2,637.40 points to close at 180,322.56 and the JSE combined index climbed 1,894.91 points, to end at 172,941.88.
Supreme Ventures traded 8,126,388 units that help push market volume to 14,235,064 units valued at $406,796,824 changing hands, in all market segments. The junior market accounted for 2,802,872 units traded, valued at $13,180,124 of all trades.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading showed 15 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
At the end of market activities, Barita Investments traded 17,077 units and gained 50 cents, to close at $3, Berger Paints traded 10,892 shares to end at $4.55, Cable & Wireless gained 10 cents in trading 275,234 shares to close at $1.25, Caribbean Cement rose 10 cents in trading 288,375 shares to close at $25.60. Carreras rose 93 cents in exchanging 23,767 shares at $65.90, trading in 1834 Investments, resulted in 306,883 shares changing hands to close at $1.39, Grace Kennedy jumped $1.99 to close at a new high of $126.99 with 93,212 shares changing hands. Jamaica Broilers ended with 6,648 shares changing hands and fell 48 cents to $14.52, Jamaica Producers rose 4 cents in trading 65,292 shares to end at $8.29, Jamaica Stock Exchange had 18,000 shares trading at $22, JMMB Group traded 32,910 units to end at $9.50, after falling 40 cents. Kingston Properties traded 10,483 shares but lost 7 cents to end at $8.93. Kingston Wharves gained 3 cents with 35,725 units changing hands and closed at $15.53, Mayberry Investments gained 23 cents with 10,000 shares trading, to close at $3.30, National Commercial Bank traded 11,505 units changing hands, to close with a gain of 70 cents at $42.50, Pan Jamaican traded 2,618 shares and rose by 49 cents to end at $25.50. Portland JSX traded 16,155 shares and fell 35 cents to end at $12.50, Radio Jamaica rose 20 cents to close at $1.60 after 157,613 shares changed hands, Sagicor Group climbed 75 cents to end with just 700 shares changing hands at $22.15. 
Sagicor Real Estate Fund traded 18,840 shares to close at $10.50, Scotia Group jumped $2.38 while trading 533,602 shares to end at $32.48, Scotia Investments had 8,473 units changing hands at $26.50, for a gain of 40 cents, Supreme Ventures lost 1 cent and ended at $4.50, with 8,126,388 units changing hands. Proven Investments traded 137,500 units to close at 19 US cents for a rise of 1 US cent, JMMB Group 7.5% preference share traded 40,000 shares to close at $1.12 after gaining 2 cents and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.5% preference share traded 1,183,000 shares to close at $2.09.
Cable & Wireless traded at $1.20, Carib Cement traded at $26, Kingston Wharves moving to $15.99 while National Commercial Bank traded at $42.75 and Scotia Group traded at $30.50.
A total of 5 stocks closed with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 ended with a lower offer.
Honey Bun had 37,260 shares changing hands, to close with a loss of 5 cents at $5.40, Jamaican Teas fell 15 cents and traded 6,000 shares to close at $3.15. Jetcon Corporation gained 5 cents while trading 6,247 shares to close at $2.60, KLE Group traded 2,300 units to close with a gain of 10 cents at $1.40. Knutsford Express closed with 316 units changing hands to end at $19 with a rise of $4, Lasco Distributors ended with 76,102 shares changing hands, to end 10 cents lower at $7.20 and Lasco Manufacturing rose 3 cents and closed at $5 with 223,349 shares trading.
Net inflows into the Jamaica’s foreign exchange market, rose by just under US$10 million on Tuesday, pushing the surplus since the end of June to US$102 million. In Tuesday’s trading, dealers bought US$51,197,988 while they sold US$41,592,069 compared to US$41,626,691 purchased and US$36,879,082 sold on Friday, of all currencies. The value for the Jamaican dollar rose against the major currencies. 
A total of US$40,035,361 was sold versus US$30,736,441 on Friday, with the selling rate falling 7 cents to end at $126.49. The Canadian dollar buying rate declined by $1.02 to end at $93.02, with dealers buying C$1,653,128 and selling C$1,026,290, at an average rate that dropped $2.94 to $97.05. The average rate for buying the British Pound dipped 31 cents to $163.03 for the purchase of £1,389,791, while £514,598 was sold to end at $165.53, for a decline of 48 cents.
The US dollar equivalent of other currencies traded amounts to US$204,464 being bought, while US$95,810 was sold.
The Trinidad and Tobago stock market closed on Tuesday with just 6 securities trading, after closing on Monday for the emancipation holiday. Trading resulted in 122,231 shares valued at $1,028,392 changing hands. The market closed with 2 stocks rising, 1 declining stocks and 3 remaining unchanged. 
Scotiabank ended with 2,000 shares changing hands to close with a 20 cents gain at $55.25.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange closed on the first trading day of August with moderate gains in the market indices on Tuesday, but advancing stocks were just edged out losers. A total of 31 securities traded, with 11 rising, 12 declining, including 7 stocks, rising and 3 falling in the junior market, as the market continues to consolidate. 
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading showed 11 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 with lower offers.
Pan Jamaican traded 5,934 shares and fell 46 cents to end at $25.01. Radio Jamaica lost 15 cents to close at $1.40 after 6,990 shares changed hands, Sagicor Group ended with a fall of $1.10 while 41,845 shares changed hands at $21.40. Sagicor Real Estate Fund traded just 1,442 shares but rose 40 cents to close at $10.50. Supreme Ventures ended at $4.51, with 5,100 units changing hands, Proven Investments traded 50,250 units to close at 18 US cents for a fall of 1 US cent and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference share traded 417,560 units to close at $2.09.
No new taxes for Jamaicans
Collector of Taxes office, Constant Spring, Kingston.
Based on developments on the fiscal operations this fiscal year, it seems that government was well on the way to enjoying a bumper reaping in 2016/17 fiscal year of higher revenues and lower interest cost that seemed adequate to meet the proposed tax break of the tax free $1.5 billion.
With the first quarter revenues and expenditure in the data is confirming what I was saying and is indicating that the naysayers are far from as informed as some would want the public to believe. What the early data is suggesting is that the economy seems to be performing better than in recent past and more importantly, that there was no need for any new taxes for this fiscal year and none will be needed to fund the rest of the personal tax break to be effected in 2017/18.
The simple reason is, savings on interest cost, with lower interest rates on government debt and an 11 percent rise in revenues over the 2015 intake, equal to an 8 percent increase above budget for the current fiscal year, will translate to $46 billion in added revenues and interest savings over the planned amounts. That will be more than enough to fund the increase tax break to come and to do without the NHT special payment. But that is not all if positive economic growth continues into 2017 revenues will rise some more probably with an additional $30 billion.
What the data is showing, is that the country has been failing from lack of thinking outside familiar territory.