Historical losers topped the local stock market in August.

Caribbean Cement Company (CCC) more than doubled the money for investors who bought in at the beggining of the month, while LIME’s share price rose 21 per cent.

No other stock listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) posted double-digit gains much less the 110 per cent rise recorded by CCC over the period. The dearth of gains was reflected in the $5.9 billion dip in JSE market capitalisation to $510.9 billion relative to the end of July, based on JSE monthly statistics.

Additionally, six stocks recorded double-digit declines led by KLE Group, which was down 19.5 per cent, C2W Music, which declined by 13 per cent, Honey Bun, down 12 per cent, Seprod, down 10.8 per cent, Kingston Wharves, down 10.3 per cent and Lasco Financial, down 10 per cent.

Contrastingly, the CCC stock soared to $3 on August 23 which represented a 215 per cent gain before slipping back to $2 by month end. The stock rise followed the cement manufacturer’s announcement of its return to profitability after three years of losses.

The day following the profit announcement some 471,000 shares crossed the floor representing a swell of activity in the stock.

Its profit was achieved by securing an effective debt write-off of some US$38 million from its parent Trinidad Cement Limited. CCC earned $359.5 million in net profit for its second quarter ending June 30 compared with an over half-a-billion dollar loss a year earlier.

As a consequence of the write-off, the cement manufacturer equity jumped to $4.5 billion compared with negative $794 million a year earlier.

LIME, another historically depressed stock, reported that its mobile subscriber base jumped 22 per cent.

The telecommunications company tightly manages information on its network size, and did not disclose its size in the June quarterly report.

However, the growth was due to the telecom firm slashing its rates by some two-thirds in early June as part of a marketing campaign facilitated by regulatory rate cuts.

Despite the subscriber growth, the company still recorded a $808-million net loss for the three months to June, or more than double year-earlier losses.