Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Jamaican stock market continues its soft sentiment into the month of June with most stock prices continuing in retreating territory.

In trading last coming into this week, 79 of the 127 securities that traded last week declined, 40 advanced and eight traded firm, as most stock prices declined, as the market closed lower and all major indices, except the Cross-Listed Index, ended in negative territory. 

The biggest decliners were the USD Index and the Junior Market Index. The USD Index declined by 3.9%, driven by the sharp drop in the share price of Productive Business Solutions (PBS), which went down 28.0%. Notably, PBS shares have been declining since May 18, dropping 66.1%, which coincides with the release of its March 2026 interim financials.

PBS poor quarter performance 

Its earnings declined by 17.7% to US$2.21 million, driven by weaker revenues, which fell 10.0% to US$84.58 million. Despite its weak March quarter results, management is aiming to achieve double-digit growth in revenue, cash flow, and profitability in 2026, as it launches an internal and client-facing AI initiative and implements a new Oracle go-to-market strategy.

The fall-off in the junior market index (-3.5%) was primarily driven by Fosrich (-5.9%), off the back of a $178.81 million loss for its March 2026 quarter, which is nearly triple the $68.60 million losses seen in March 2025. Fosrich’s larger losses reflect a 51.3% revenue drop to $415.19Mn amid a substantial fall in global solar panel costs. 

Still, management is looking to orchestrate a rebound by executing real estate sale-and-lease-back transactions to pay down debt and cutting costs through aggressive expense control and inventory optimisation. Fosrich also plans to open a new superstore in Q3, which should boost sales. 

Stationery and Office Supplies (-10.9%) also contributed to the decline, but there was no major news to explain the dip. Trading was heavily concentrated last week, with the top three volume leaders accounting for 75.5% of total market volume, up from 61.4% in the prior week. 

Although there was an 11.8% increase in trading volume week over week to 400.70 million units, the value of those shares shrank by 17.0% to $0.75 billion. Kintyre Holdings (JA) with 130.21 million units, accounting for 36.9% of total volume, led trading volumes, followed by One on One Educational Services Limited 130.2 million Units (32.4%) and Transjamaican Highway with 25.11 million units (6.2%)