The Jamaican stock market hit the same slippery slope as other major world indices, slumping by 2,861 points or 3.0 per cent Friday.

The final day of trade for the week was the worst for the market, which had five steady days of decline, shedding more than 5,300 points in the process.

A total of 39 stocks traded, with only four - Lascelles, JMMB 12.25%, Supreme Ventures and CCMB - coming out ahead.

Another 27 stocks lost value, led by Montego Freeport, CCFG, NCB and Salada. Ten of the losers were financial stocks.

The Jamaica Stock Exchange's broad index lost 5,381 points or six per cent for the week. The All-Jamaican index performed even more poorly, losing 12 per cent or 9,690 points.

Blue chips were punished even more, with the JSE Select ending down 288 points, or 13.68 per cent.

For the week, some $40.49 billion of value was wiped off the portfolios of stock investors.

Jamaican stocks have lost just about $115 billion of value in three weeks as investors retreat in the face of uncertainty about whether Jamaica can do what other markets cannot: Come out ahead of the turmoil that has unbalanced world financial systems.

Opportunities available

The JSE market cap closed at $700.96 billion Friday.

Amid the gloom, however, stockbrokers say there is opportunity and have been urging clients to snap up bargain stocks.

Scotia DBG Investments says pension funds, institutional investors and 'smart buyers' have been taking advantage of the discounted prices.

"The time to seek lucrative opportunities in the stock market, while abating prices exist, is

now!" declares its newsletter to clients.

In Trinidad, all three market indices fell. The All T&T ended down 88 points at 1,335. The Barbados market also fell Friday.

In Latin American, AP reported that markets see-sawed lower Friday and that trading was automatically halted on exchanges in Brazil and Peru after declines on their benchmark indexes topped 10 per cent.

Sao Paulo's Ibovespa stock index traded down 3.3 per cent at 35,855 in the late afternoon.

The real fell 4.5 per cent to 2.3 reals to the US dollar, but only after the central bank auctioned at least US$589 million in reserves for 2.3 reals to the dollar in order to halt the slide.

The real has lost more than 30 per cent of its value since August 1.

Latin American equities "keep getting dragged into the bottomless negative frenzy coming from the US", said Enrique Alvarez, head of research for Latin American financial markets at IDEAglobal in New York.

"This is not a domestic phenomenon coming out of emerging markets in the Latin American region, it's more a contagion effect from the US."

Inverstors worrying

The region's biggest exchanges have all lost more than 20 per cent since September 25 as investors worry a widespread recession could slash demand for Latin American commodity exports, including oil, copper and farm crops.

The big fall on the JSE Friday also followed an admission by Government that Jamaica could face serious fallouts in remittances, tourism and the ability to access credit overseas if the financial problems persist, and that a crisis-management team was in place to monitor the situation and take action if needed, to steady the markets.

business@gleanerjm.com.