Durrant Pate/Contributor

There was mixed performance among the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Indices with five out of nine advancing last week to snap two consecutive weeks of decline. 

The index with the highest appreciation was the JSE Composite Index (+0.72 per cent). A 9.31% price appreciation from Caribbean Cement Company, the 10th largest company on the index by market capitalization drove this increase. 

Investors reacted positively to Carib Cement’s first quarter earnings release, which showed a J$1.64 billion net profit increase to J$1.93 billion relative to the first quarter of 2023. Higher revenues and a reduction in the costs associated with planned maintenance supported Carib Cement’s earnings.

Declining indices

On the other hand, the biggest decliner was the USD Equities Index, which went down by 0.62 per cent, driven by a 3.77 per cent week-over-week decline from Productive Business Solutions (PBS), the second largest stock in the index by market capitalization.

Notably, PBS typically has low trade volumes but despite announcing business acquisitions in Peru and Ecuador, the conglomerate has seen its share price drop 18.18 per cent over the last three months. 

Overall market activity reflected trading in 124 stocks, of which 61 advanced, 46 declined, and 17 traded firms. Market volume amounted to 107.10 million units valued at over J$0.46 billion. 

This marked a 29.0 per cent decrease in volume and a 67.2 per cent increase in value relative to the previous week ending April 26, 2024. Wigton Windfarm, Transjamaican Highway and One Great Studio Company (1GS) were the wow volume leaders at 28.85 million units (26.94 per cent), 11.76 million units (10.98 per cent), and $8.75 million units (8.17 per cent) respectively. 

The increased volumes from 1GS coincided with the release of its annual report for December 2023, which reiterated robust revenue and earnings increases of 92.96 per cent and 183.4 per cent, respectively for 2023. 

Additionally, the company reduced its debt and is now focused on strategic growth fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies to drive product innovation and efficient service delivery.