Durrant Pate/Contributor

TransJamaican Highway (TJH) shares have been climbing since news that toll rates went up last weekend.

Last week TJH’s share price went up by $0.05 or 1.62 per cent to $3.14, as 7,095,745 units exchange hands. However, shares clawed back slightly on Monday to $3.10 and in trading yesterday,  the share price held firm yesterday at $3.10 with 5,490,681 shares traded. 

The upward movement in share price coincided with last Saturday’s (July 6,) increase in toll rates paid at the Portmore, Spanish Town, Vineyards, and May Pen toll plazas.

Class 1 motorists who use the Portmore toll plaza in St Catherine now pay $360, up from $340, while the T-tag discounted rate will be $350. 

Class 2 rate has been increased $660, up from $610, and the T-tag discounted rate is set at $630. Class 3 rate is now $1,090, up from $1,020.

Those who use the Spanish Town toll plaza in the Class 1 category is now paying $270, up from $255, while the T-tag discount rate is $260. Class 2 category motorists pays $470, up from $430, and the new T-tag rate is $440.

Overall stock market activity

Regarding the overall stock market activity last week, TJH stock was among the three market leaders with Edufocal and Wigton Windfarm, as number one and two, respectively. Edufocal traded 15.27 million units (23.94 per cent) followed by Wigton with 10.39 million units (16.28 per cent) and TJH next with 7.10 million units (11.12 per cent) traded.

Five of the nine market indices appreciated relative to eight indices last week, as the stock market appears to lose some steam it was gathering. Overall market activity resulted from trading in 120 stocks, of which 48 advanced, 62 declined and 10 traded firm, relative to the previous week when 71 stocks advanced. 

The JSE Cross-Listed Index (+1.21 per cent) and JSE Select Index (+1.03 per cent) showed the highest appreciation with the Junior Market Index (-1.23 per cent) declining the most during the period. For the Cross Listed Index, Guardian Holdings  +4.30 per cent), led the increase in the index on thin volumes of just 169 units. 

For the Select Index, NCB Financial Group (+2.65 per cent) mainly drove the increase, followed by Carreras Limited (+3.93 per cent) and TJH  (+1.62 per cent). There were no news releases to support price increases seen in NCBFG and Carreras. 

On the other hand, the decline seen for the Junior Market index was primarily driven by Express Catering Limited (-7.30 per cent) and Dolla Financial ( -12.50 per cent).