A HIGHER proportion of sell orders at the South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPX) last year indicated potential profit-booking tendencies, SPX noted in its Stock Market Review 2024 released last week. This, it reported, was part of the challenges faced by the Exchange last year.
“The average weekly new order flow for 2024 recorded on the e-trading platform stood at $1,110,479, an increase of 320.07 percent when compared to 2023. This is in line with the uptick in aggregated 2024 trading statistics.
“The order book as at year end reported 73.81 percent of sell orders as opposed to 26.19 percent of buy orders.
The average bid to offer ratio over a 12-month period stood at 1:20 in 2024 compared to 1:21 in 2023, hinting two things primarily, there is no shortage situation in the market (offers\bids) and the overall supply situations has improved from 1:33 (FY 2022) and 1:21 (FY 2023).”
The trend continued into this year. As of yesterday, SPX unexecuted order list showed a total of 1.573 million shares on the supply side against a total of 57,269 on the demand side.
SPX described the overall market performance last year as one that underscored resilience and growth potentials.
“The macroeconomic recovery and consistent growth in investor awareness position Fiji’s market for sustained expansion.
“Strategic capital-raising mechanisms, such as IPOs and DRPs (Dividend Reinvestment Plans), present pathways for further market depth and liquidity.
“Trading activity has also indicated positive improvements, and the year opened the door for IPOs once again and capital-raising.
“Operationally, SPX has set foundations to engage key development projects in 2025 that will shape progress for the market,” SPX stated.
NOTE: This article was first published in the print edition of the Fiji Times dated FEBRUARY 12, 2025.
