Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jamaican investors are warming to those listed companies involved in the provision of construction and building materials, as exhibited by the trading activity in the past days in Atlantic Hardware and Plumbing Company and Omni Industries.

Notably, Atlantic Hardware and Plumbing and Omni were also the top two advancing stocks for last week, suggesting that investor interest this week may have been influenced by expectations of increased demand for construction inputs amid the post-hurricane rebuilding efforts. Trading activity remains concentrated in a few companies’ stock, namely Atlantic Hardware and Plumbing Company with 29.51 million units (31.19%) exchanging hands last week followed by TransJamaican Highway with 20.21million units (21.36%) and Omni with 5.46 million units (5.77%), which together accounted for 58.3% of overall market activity. 

Overall market sentiment appears to have turned negative with large-cap financial stocks leading the decliners last week. Overall market activity showed higher trading value despite a decline in volumes. Total market volume fell to 93.67 million units (7.9%  week-over-week, while the corresponding value rose 34.4% week-over-week to J$364.40 million.

The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Combined Index slipped 2.3%, widening the downturn from last week’s modest 0.4% fall. Among the 127 securities traded, 33 posted gains, 81 lost ground, and 13 closed flat. The most influential decliners on the Combined Index were Scotia Group Jamaica (-3.2%), NCB Financial Group (-4.8%), Guardian Holdings (-4.6%) and PanJam Investment Trust (-4.0%). 

This occurred despite some positive company-specific developments such as PanJam’s dividend consideration and Guardian’s reporting strong third quarter results on October 31, with earnings rising to TT$237.38 million from TT$197.41 million, supported by growth in its insurance segment. Like the Combine market, all other JSE major indices declined, led by the JSE Financial Index (-3.3%) and the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index (-2.7%). 

The Financial Index recorded the sharpest pullback driven by price declines among its largest constituents, including Scotia Jamaica, NCBFG, Guardian, Sagicor Group Jamaica (-1.9%) and Barita Investments (-3.6%). Similarly, the All-Jamaican Composite Index fell, largely due to contractions in NCBFG and Scotia Jamaica.