By Rawle Lucas
Four stocks in the Lucas Stock Index (LSI) traded this second period of August 2021 with one registering a loss and the other three registering no gain. The stock price of DIH declined 0.13 percent and lost G$100 million in value. With the value of the other stocks remaining constant, the LSI lost value equivalent to the loss suffered by DIH stocks. The market capitalization of the nine stocks in the LSI therefore stood at G$467.660 billion at the close of trading this week. The active and inactive stocks of the manufacturing companies fell to G$179.063 billion or 38.289 percent of the market cap while the active and inactive stocks of the commercial banks remained constant at G$258.762 billion and caused its share to rise slightly to 55.331 percent of the market value on account of the loss suffered by the manufacturing companies.
Stocks in the index are now being classified by the size of their market capitalization and are displayed in tabular form below. The mid-cap stocks account for 51.386 percent of the value of the LSI while the large-cap stock accounts for 32 percent. The small-cap stocks contribute 13 percent of the value of the LSI and the micro-cap stocks account for 3 percent.
Tax Advantage of Stock Trades
The number of stocks traded in the second trading period of August was higher than that of the first trading period. A total of 37,620 stocks in the Lucas Stock Index traded this week as against 28,352 last week. The higher trade volume resulted in investors enjoying tax benefits of G$3.501 million. The stocks of four companies were traded with RBL stocks accounting for 92 percent of this week’s tax benefits. BTI stocks accounted for 6 percent of the tax benefits while sellers of DDL and DIH stocks enjoyed one percent each of this week’s tax savings. With 32 weeks of trading gone, the tax gains for investors have amounted to an estimated G$263.313 million.
