The Tribune

The collective value of BISX-listed equities fell by 4.82 percent during the nine months to end-September 2018, producing a similar decline to that witnessed on major global stock markets.

The Bahamas International Securities Exchange's (BISX) All-Share Index, which only measures share price movements among its 19 listed stocks, and does not take into account dividend payments, fell at an accelerated pace compared to the prior year period.

The exchange's own data, published yesterday, revealed that the All-Share Index declined by 3.73 percent or 72.33 during the nine months to end-September 2017 as opposed to the 4.82 percent or 99.53 fall experienced this year.

BISX, though, remains a $5bn capital market. Besides the collective $4.144bn market capitalisation of its listed equities stocks, the exchange is also home to 13 preference share issues worth $327 and 19 bonds with a "face value" of $579m.

"Over the three-year period 2016 to 2018, the market value of all securities listed on BISX has shown a decrease from 2016 to 2017, and an increase from 2017 to 2018," BISX said.

The 4.82 percent All-Share Index declined mirrored the 1.8 percent and 10.38 percent falls endured by London's FTSE 100 and the MSCI Emerging Market Index, respectively, during the first nine months of 2018.

Despite the decline, BISX was used a platform to conduct $35.481m worth of trading during that period. The bulk of trading activity, involving 1,011 out of 1,084 transactions, involved shares in the exchange's 19 listed stocks. Some 7,156,319 shares, worth a total $28.344m, changed hands during the first nine months of 2018.

The remaining activity was led by 43 preference share trades, covering 49,351 securities, which was worth a collective $1.539m. Some 5,498 government bonds worth a total $5.498m changed hands in 27 trades on the secondary market, while there were three trades involving $100,00 in corporate bonds.

BISX's data showed that while equity trading volumes had increased in 2018, the value of the shares involved had fallen year-over-year. "Trading volume for the nine-month period January 2, 2018, to September 28, 2018, was 7,211,268 shares for a value of $35.481m," the exchange said.

"By comparison, trading volume for the nine-month period January 1, 2017, to September 29, 2017, was 3,414,260 shares for a value of $36.445m."

Turning to the third quarter alone, BISX added: "Trading volume for the three-month period July 1, 2018, to September 28, 2018, was 3,343,087 shares for a value of $13.346m. By comparison, trading volume for the three-month period July 1, 2017, to September 29, 2017, was 1,063,957 shares for a value of $20.708m."

Breaking trading activity down by month, BISX added: "For the nine-month period from January 2, 2018, to September 28, 2018, the average volume per trading day was 38,501 shares for a value of $188,800.91.

"By comparison, for the nine-month period from January 1, 2017, to September 29, 2017, the average volume per trading day was 17,811 shares for an average value of $193,974.17."

Commonwealth Bank was the most popular BISX-listed stock in terms of both volume and value of shares traded for the nine months to end-September, accounting for 36.3 percent and 30.8 percent of each activity, respectively. AML Foods and FOCOL Holdings took second and third spots on both indicators.