The intent of this line in PropertiesTest.sh:

chmod -R a+rx $WRITABLEJDK || exit 1

is to make $WRITABLEJDK writable, but it fails miserably.

Demo:
 $ pwd; chmod -R u-w ../build; /home/martin/jtreg-binaries/current/bin/jtreg -noreport -verbose:nopass,fail,error -jdk:/home/martin/ws/up/test/../build/linux-x86_64-normal-server-release/images/jdk jdk/java/util/Currency/PropertiesTest.sh; chmod -R u+w ../build
...
cp: cannot create regular file './testjava/lib/currency.properties': Permission denied