From the world’s fastest sprinter in Usain Bolt, Jamaica now holds a new record for the world’s fastest bull in the form of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).

The JSE was the top-performing index in 2015, according to Bloomberg, topping 92 markets tracked by the global financial research company. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped about one per cent and the Euro Stoxx 50 lost six per cent in dollar terms, the JSE saw a 90 per cent surge in 2015 based on “foreign acquisitions, stronger investor safeguards and a rebounding economy”, Bloomberg said in an article published on Christmas Eve.

In the article entitled ‘Its Jammin: Jamaica Stock Market conquers the world’, written by Ezra Fieser, Bloomberg noted that the small JSE market with ballpark capitalisation of US$5.3 billion (or $574 billion yesterday) is now attracting global attention. The JSE is a mere fraction of the US-based Dow with a capitalisation of some US$5.23 trillion.

Marlene Street-Forrest, general manager of the JSE, expressed satisfaction at the report in a comment to the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday. “You know this is good news for us. Obviously it has put the global spotlight on the exchange. This will allow more people to see the market and participate for 2016,” she said.

“We are hoping we can capitalise on this good news for 2016 and going forward,” Street-Forrest added. Twenty-three companies doubled their value on the exchange during this year, in which activity was also boosted by the sale of brewing company Red Stripe to UK-based Heinekin and the acquisition of Dolphin Cove. By virtue of its small size, “Jamaica lives on the fringe of frontier status”, Bloomberg noted, but pointed out that the JSE has staged a comeback from 2014 when its benchmark index lost five per cent, and 2013 when it slipped 13 per cent.

“Twenty-nine of the 57 stocks traded on the main and junior markets in Jamaica saw yearover- year post-tax profits rise 10 per cent or more.

Eight of those saw profits spike more than 100 per cent, led by the Jamaica Stock Exchange Group’s 1,658 per cent growth for a $1.2 million profit for the 12 months that ended in September,” Bloomberg said. Outstanding performers included companies like Caribbean Cement Co and Pulse Investments Ltd. Pulse surged 557 per cent in share value.

Bloomberg noted that roughly $700,000 a day in securities were traded in the first 11 months of the year, up nearly 40 per cent from last year.