Formerly known as the ‘Kingston Stock Exchange’, the Jamaica Stock Exchange began trading on February 3, 1969. The 49-year-old company became publicly owned in June 2008, listing on its own exchange under the ticker JSE.
Six years later, JSE became the 16th member of the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE). Their aim, to provide a platform that allows efficient and effective communication amongst various stock exchanges in countries worldwide.
In 2015, Bloomberg rated the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) as the number one stock exchange in the world!
The stock exchange surged more than 80%, surpassing the performance of other indexes globally such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Euro Stoxx 50.
What are some other factors that contributed to this excellent performance?
The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) launched the Caribbean’s first online trading platform in May of 2015. This certainly caught the attention of investment ‘gurus’ around the world as well as local retail investors. With the tax break given to companies that list, business has been booming for JSE as entrepreneurs utilise the markets rather than take the typical loans avenue. Launching its Junior Market in 2009, which jumped 160% in 2015, allows for smaller companies to list in order to raise capital, despite being unable to meet the criteria to list on the bigger markets.
Fast forward to October 2018; Jamaica once again has dominated the world of investments!
In the last five years, the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has remarkably exceeded the 73% and 86% rally of the S&P 500 and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, respectively. Soaring its way to the top with a massive 233% rally, which produced a 19% increase in dollar value alone for this year.
Jamaica’s index outperformed approximately 100 other equity gauges according to Bloomberg.
While the country struggles with issues such as crime, brain drain and debt, trading has become instrumental in the average Jamaican’s life. Since 2015, approximately 22 companies have listed on the stock exchange with another four slated for the quarter four of 2018.
The finance ministry in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) aims to achieve an annual economic growth of 5% by 2020. This will take a combination of strategic moves from both the public and private sector as well as a reduction in debt levels.
Jamaicans are shifting from saving to investment mode due to low-interest rates and financial literacy.
“The world is discovering the potential of our beloved country, the largest English-speaking Caribbean island set squarely in the centre of the Americas.” – Jean Lowrie-Chin of Jamaica Observer wrote in 2015.
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