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Wigton leads gains and volumes in market debut, triggers circuit

Published:Wednesday | May 22, 2019 | 12:00 AMSteven Jackson

 

Wigton Windfarm jumped 28 per cent and dominated volumes on its first day of trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

With an energetic start to trading the stock closed at $0.64 with 8.35 million units trading. Wigton will open at $0.60 on the next trading day - on Friday as Thursday is a public holiday - with sellers asking for $0.70 and buyers bidding $0.66.

Wigton listed at $0.50 in the morning, but quickly jumped to $0.66 and then to $0.75. All trades above $0.65 were subsequently cancelled upon reconciliation of the day’s trading. That’s because those trades would have surpassed the double-circuit breaker rule which allows a maximum movement of 30 per cent in a day, under most circumstances.

A trader told the Gleaner during mid-day, that the stock was rallying with support on both sides of the trade. The lowest bid in the system was at $0.58 and lowest ask at $0.66, the trader said.

Wigton shares topped gains on the day among the 63 stocks that traded. It also accounted for 57 per cent of the total 14.4 million units which traded on the JSE for Wednesday. The JSE Combined Index advanced by 2,481 points or 0.6 per cent to close at $414,535 points. Additionally all other JSE indexes gained ground on the day. Overall market activity resulted from trading in 63 stocks of which 26 advanced, 27 declined and 10 traded firm.

 The Wigton’s initial public offer opened on April 17 and closed on May 1. The IPO offered 11 billion units at $0.50 per share for the company, which was a subsidiary of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.

Wigton made $730 million net profit for its nine months ending December 2018, or 26 per cent less profit than the $1 billion reported a year earlier. Revenues over the period were flat year on year at $1.9 billion. The reduced profit was attributable to refinancing activities, which cost the company $1 billion, and reduced its net profit margin from 42 per cent to 29 per cent in December 2018.

 

steven.jackson@gleanerjm.com