Media and Journalism Course
Business and Economic Reporting
Understanding stock tables
Let’s take a look at the stock table of the SPSE and use it to
understand the format – all stockmarkets issue similar tables, but the
order and detail may vary slightly.
Here is a sample trading summary for Tuesday April 3, 2007.
Trading Summary for Tuesday, 3rd April 2007
Last
Openin
Trade
Listed Company Code
g Price
Price
(F$)
(F$)
Change
F$
%
No. of
Trade
s
Volum
e
Trade
d
Value
Trade
d
(F$)
Closing
Quotes
Buy
(F$)
Sell
(F$)
MAIN BOARD
Atlantic &
Pacific
Packaging
Company
Limited
Amalgamated
Telecom
Holdings
Limited
Communicatio
ns (Fiji)
Limited
APP
1.19
1.19
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
-
1.00
AT
H
0.84
0.84
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
-
0.80
CF
M
1.84
1.84
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
-
1.83
Foster’s Group
Pacific Limited
FGP
18.2
0
18.20
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
14.5
0
18.5
0
Fiji Care
Insurance
Limited
FIL
0.70
0.70
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
-
0.63
Flour Mills of
Fiji Limited
FM
F
0.86
0.86
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
-
0.88
Fiji Sugar
Corporation
Limited
FSC
0.36
0.36
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
0.36
-
Fiji Television
Limited
FTV
4.67
4.67
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
4.60
4.65
KG
F
1.01
1.01
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
-
0.98
PGI
2.25
2.25
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
-
2.17
RB
G
1.63
1.63
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
1.50
1.63
RCF
3.00
3.00
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
-
3.00
Kontiki
Growth Fund
Limited
Pacific Green
Industries
(Fiji) Limited
RB Patel
Group Limited
The Rice
Company of
Fiji Limited
BER, M11Ho2
1
Media and Journalism Course
Business and Economic Reporting
Toyota Tsusho
(South Sea)
Limited
TTS
2.10
2.10
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
2.00
-
VB Holdings
Limited
VBL
2.80
2.80
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
2.65
-
Yaqara Group
Limited
YG
L
1.33
1.33
0.0
0
0.0
0
-
-
1.18
RESTRICTED BOARD
Fijian
0.0
0.0
Holdings
4.03
2
1,454
5,850 3.63
FHL 4.03
0
0
Limited
Market Capitalisation at close of trading today was F$940,983,317; No change.
4.03
So what does it all mean? Reading from left to right we’ll examine the
table.

The first column shows the listed companies on the exchange –
for example, the first company, or security in our example is
the Atlantic & Pacific Packaging Company Limited.

The second column is the three digit code assigned by the
exchange to the listing so that it can be easily recognised.

The next listing is for Last Trade Price (F$) which gives the
price of the shares at the last time it was traded.

Opening Price (F$) is the price at which the shares started the
trading day.

The Change value is given both as an absolute dollar figure and
as a percentage representing the difference.

The number of Trades column indicates how many trades for
the company have been made on that day i.e. how many
investors bought that day.

The Volume Traded column gives the number of shares traded
and the Value Traded is the total price of these shares.

The last information found is the Closing Quotes column,
which shows any remaining buying and selling interest
registered for a share. The buy column shows the highest price
at which investors are willing to buy shares while the Sell
column shows the lowest price at which investors wish to sell.
Market List data
Another helpful table is the market list data. Look at this sample from
the SPSE.
BER, M11Ho2
2
Media and Journalism Course
Business and Economic Reporting
The first columns have already been explained as they are essentially
similar to that of the standard trading summary. However, other
interesting information can be found:

However, additional information can be found in the sixth
column, which is headed 52 WEEKS LOW & HIGH. This shows
the lowest and highest prices of the share in the last 52 weeks.
It is useful to see if the Last Sale Price is nearer to the HIGH or
the LOW of this range to help investors decide on whether to
buy, hold or sell the shares and at what price. The range
between prices indicates how volatile the price of a particular
share is.

The next column shows PRICE EARNINGS RATIO (PER)
expressed in units of “times”. This is a commonly used market
value measure that indicates the number of years required for
an investor to recover the current market price of the shares. It
is calculated by dividing current market price (i.e. Last Sale
Price) by Earnings Per Share (EPS). EPS is calculated by
dividing net profit after tax by the number of shares and
indicates potential distribution of income. The higher the EPS,
the lower the PER. A low PER may indicate that the share price
has not grown as much as earnings so a rise may be expected.
When analysing a company, it is worth checking the company’s
EPS trend over the last few years and its EPS projections to see
if the low PER indicates undervaluation by the market. A zero
PER means there are no earnings for the company yet. A
negative PER means the company has incurred losses.

The DIVIDENDS PER SHARE (DPS) column shows the payment
of the company’s annual profits to shareholders on a per share
BER, M11Ho2
3
Media and Journalism Course
Business and Economic Reporting
basis, while the next column, DIVIDEND YIELD (DY), shows
the latest annual dividend payout as a percentage of the Last
Sale Price. This is a theoretical "income return" on the share
assuming the current dividend rate is continued. DY is
calculated by dividing DPS by the current market price of the
share.

MARKET CAPITALISATION, the final column, shows the market
value of the company, calculated by multiplying the last sale
price by the number of shares on issue. Information on the
number of ordinary shares issued is available in the company’s
annual report.
BER, M11Ho2
4