Stock Exchange sees heightened levels of trading

For the past several weeks, the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) has been witnessing high levels of trading, forcing brokers to stay on the trading floor a few hours longer than usual. The cut-off time for trading has usually been a little after 12 noon but TTSE officials said yesterday with the heightened trading activity brokers are forced to stay on the floor longer. One official said the trading  numbers would usually be tabulated and sent to the daily papers by 6 pm but because of the heavy volume of trading, they have been unable to meet that deadline. One day this week, trading went on so late that Newsday did not get the results of the day’s trading until 8 pm. On Wednesday, for instance, RBTT Financial Holdings, with a traded volume of 4.39 million shares led the field of 14 active issues. Guardian Holdings Limited (GHL) was up 30 percent in three sessions of trading.

Brokers speculate that the inevitability of a merger between the two companies was increasing the appetite for shares. Heavy trading produced 5.53 million shares with a market value of $148.53 million. At the last trading before the 2004 Budget, too, stocks exploded resulting in a two percent jump in the Composite Index. TTSE officials could not say how long this buoyant period was going to last. The robust activity was attributed to the fact that brokers can no longer trade in bulk and have to trade individual shares. It  was felt that the surge in cross-border trading by regional companies was driving the increased trading. “It’s good for the econony,” one TTSE  official said, noting that it was an indication that people were investing heavily on the exchange.