The drop in the equities market continued last week, with eight of the nine indices recording marginal losses, continuing from the previous week when all indices declined. 

Trading activity for the week resulted in all major indices declining, except for the Financial Index. The increase in the Financial Index (+0.14 per cent) was driven primarily by 7.8 per cent and 1.4 per cent week-over-week increases in Pan Jamaica Group (PJAM) and Sagicor Group Jamaica (SJ).

PJAM’s share price appreciation coincides with positive earnings news of a 36.0 per cent increase in annual net income following the amalgamation of the operations of JP Global holdings. The amalgamation led to strong performances across its financial services, property and infrastructure and global services trading divisions. 

There was no news to explain the movement in SJ. On the other hand, the USD Index (-2.60 per cent) and the Manufacturing and Distribution (-1.45 per cent) Indices experienced the most significant decliners. The USD Index‘s decline was driven primarily by a 3.89 per cent week-over-week decrease in Productive Business Solution (PBS), the heaviest-weighted stock in the index. 

There was no news to support the deterioration in the share price. However, PBS declared a dividend for its perpetual preference shares. Despite an 11.11 per cent recovery in Spur Tree Spices Jamaica from a director selling 11.84 million shares, the Manufacturing and Distribution Index dipped due to a 6.84 per cent week-over-week decline in Seprod Group’s share price. 

However, there was no news to the market to explain this decline. Last week’s market activity saw trading in 124 stocks of which 43 advanced, 69 declined and 12 traded firm.

Wigton Windfarm, Carreras and TransJamaican Highway were the volume leaders with 36.91 million units (23.38 per cent), 20.58 million units (13.04 per cent), and 19.17 million units (12.14 per cent) respectively.