The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas International Securities Exchange’s (BISX) All-Share Index was flat during the 2019 first quarter, under-performing compared to indices in more developed capital markets.

The exchange revealed that its Index, which only measures share price movements for listed stocks (and does not include dividend payment returns, rose by just 0.47 percent during the three months to end-March 2019.

This compared to increases of 12.92 percent and 8.09 percent for the S&P 500 and FTSE 100 indices, respectively, while the MSCI Emerging Market Index expanded in value by 10.72 percent during the 2019 first quarter.

BISX added, though, that its total market capitalisation including listed equities and debt instruments (bonds and preference shares) continued to gradually increase. Driven mainly by the rise in equity values, which have risen from $4.368bn in 2017 to a current $4.853bn, BISX said its total market capitalisation stood to $5.366bn at end-March 2019.

“As at March 29, 2018, the market was comprised of 19 ordinary shares with a market capitalisation of $4.85bn. In addition, there were 13 preference shares with a market capitalization of $327m and 13 bonds with a face value of $513m,” BISX said.

Trading volumes and values across both equity and debt securities were slightly down for the 2019 first quarter compared to the prior year, BISX added.

“Trading volume for the three-month period January 2, 2019, to March 29, 2019, was 2,272,970 shares for a value of $9.788m,” it said. “By comparison, trading volume for the three-month period January 2, 2018, to March 29, 2018, was 2,651,061 shares for a value of $13.324m.

“For the three-month period from January 2, 2019, to March 29, 2019, the average volume per trading day was 37,333 shares for a value of $160,205.75. By comparison, for the three-month period from January 2, 2018, to March 29, 2018, the average volume per trading day was 43,159 shares for a value of $213,565.02.