The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian stock market maintained its slow but steady recovery through to end-September 2014, with the exchange’s All-Share Index up 7.44 per cent for the year.

Unveiling its statistical data for the nine months to end-September, the Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) indicated that the recovery in equity prices had increased in pace compared to the 4.47 per cent improvement for the same period in 2013.

BISX’s market capitalisation has also steadily risen , standing at $3.362 billion, and the All-Share Index’s improvement has outpaced the likes of the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and MSCI Emerging Markets indices.

Trading volumes and values, meanwhile, have remained flat. BISX said: “Trading volume for the nine month period January 1, 2014 ,to September 30, 2014, was 2,227,139 shares for a value of $11.358 million.

“Trading volume for the nine-month period January 1, 2013, to September 30, 2013, was 2,593,994 shares for a value of $11.503 million.

“Trading volume for the three-month period July 1 to September 30, 2014, was 685,511 shares for a value of $3.766 million. By comparison, for the three-month period from July 1 to September 30, 2013, 940,320 shares traded for a value of $3.524 million.”

As for daily averages, BISX added: “For the nine-month period from January 1, 2014, to September 30, 2014, the average volume per trading day was 11,941 shares for a value of $61,073.

“By comparison, for the nine-month period from January 1, 2013, to September 30, 2013, the average volume per trading day was 13,788 shares for an average value of $61,165.”

When it came to the market’s share trading volume leaders, Commonwealth Bank led the way for the first nine months of 2014, its 387,912 shares accounting for 17.4 per cent of market volume.

Just behind was Colina Holdings (Bahamas) with 312,880 shares traded, standing at 14 per cent of total volumes. It was followed by Doctors Hospital (10.8 per cent of total shares traded); then AML Foods and CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank Bahamas, (8.8 per cent and 8.1 per cent of share volumes respectively).

Commonwealth Bank also led the way on the value of shares traded in the first nine months of 2014, with this figure standing at $2.569 million and accounting for 22.6 per cent of the total.

FINCO came in second at $1.649 million or 14.5 per cent of the total value of shares traded, followed by Cable Bahamas at $1.096 million or 9.7 per cent.

Then came Colina Holdings (Bahamas) and JS Johnson, with the total value of shares traded accounting for 8.9 per cent and 7 per cent of the market, respectively.