Significant upswing resulting in a majority of the indices advancing

Durrant Pate/Contributor 

Jamaica’s stock market remains volatile given recent market performance, which has been sluggish with most of the indices heading south.

Following three consecutive weeks of downswings, last week’s trading activity saw a significant upswing resulting in a majority of the indices (7/9) advancing. The two exceptions were the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Select and the US dollar equities indices. 

The JSE Cross Listed Index was the standout performer, recording significant advances of 7.78% and 4.69% respectively. The Cross Listed Index‘s improvement was buoyed by a week-over-week increase of 1.34% in the share price of Massy Holdings. 

No direct news to support the movement 

However, there was no direct news to support the movement in stock price, according to NCB Capital Markets, one of the biggest player in Jamaica’s equities market. The upward trend in the Manufacturing and Distribution index was driven by a 9.24% week-over-week surge in the price of Seprod.

Again, there was no news event that could be directly attributed to the price movement. Of the two indices that declined, the JSE USD index (8.46%) saw the most significant fall-off. 

The downturn was driven by a (15.00%) week-over-week in decline Productive Business Solution USD ordinary shares. Overall market activity resulted from trading in 125 stocks, of which 29 advanced, 61 declined, and 15 traded firm.

The top performers for the week were Stationery and Office Supplies and JMMB Group 7.25%, which increased by 45.84% and 32.25% respectively. Whereas Equityline Mortgage Investment Corporation Pref. Shares (-37.54%) and First Rock Real Estate Investment (USD) (-19.09%) saw the largest declines week-over-week. 

Market volume amounted to 140.51 million units valued at over $1.36 billion. Wigton Windfarm with 36,031,907 units (25.22%), Transjamaican Highway with 15,617,014 units (10.93%), NCB Financial Group Limited with 9,904,820 units (6.93%) were the volume leaders.