By Rawle Lucas
Five stocks in the Lucas Stock Index (LSI) traded this third period of August 2021 with two registering gains and two registering losses. One stock registered no gain. The stock price of RBL declined 4.76 percent and lost G$7.170 billion in value. In addition, the stock price of BTI fell 1.25 percent and gave up G$400 million in value. Some of the losses were recovered by the gains made by other stocks. The stock price of DIH rose 1.41 percent and allowed it to gain G$1.1 billion. Also, the stock price of DTC rose 1.96 percent and added G$500 million to the market capitalization. The market capitalization of the nine stocks in the LSI therefore stood at G$461.775 billion at the close of trading this week. The active and inactive stocks of the manufacturing companies fell to G$180.163 billion or 39.015 percent of the market cap while the active and inactive stocks of the commercial banks fell to G$251.192 or 54.397 percent of the market value on account of the loss suffered by the two commercial banks.
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 52.279 percent of the value of the LSI while the large-cap stock accounts for 31 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
Five stocks traded in the third trading period of August. A total of 393,632 stocks in the Lucas Stock Index traded this week as against 37,620 last week. The higher trade volume resulted in investors enjoying tax benefits of G$8.656 million this week. The stocks of five companies were traded with DDL stocks accounting for 69.484 percent of this week’s tax benefits. DIH stocks accounted for 27.719 and DTC stocks for 1.862 percent. RBL and BTI stocks brought up the rear with 0.734 and 0.201 percent of the tax benefits respectively. With 33 weeks of trading gone, the tax gains for investors have amounted to an estimated G$271.969 million.
