Archives for October 2013

TTSE: 3 new 52 weeks’ highs

October 24, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Thursday, 24th October 2013 | Participation in the Trinidad market picked up on today with 16 securities trading of which 4 advanced, none declined and 12 traded firm. Trading activity resulted in 507,642 shares trading valued at $7,294,241. Three stocks traded at new 52 weeks high during the day.

Angostura Holdings traded 6,525 units firm at $13.50; Ansa McCal chipped in with 34,644 units but price remained at $66.30; Ansa Merchant Bank traded 3,5000 firm at $37.80. First Citizens Bank added 46,117 shares valued at $1,614,095 as the price remained the same at $35; Jamaica Money Market Brokers exchanged 156,563 shares for a value of $114,291 as the price remained unchanged at 73 cents; National Enterprises contributed 104,619 shares with a value of $1,881,050 at the $17.98 unchanged at the end of trading.

One Caribbean Media enjoyed an increase of 21 cents to end the day at $18.30, a new 52 weeks high as 685 units changed hands. Sagicor Financial Corporation had a volume of 116,279 shares valued at $843,023 as the price remained unchanged at $7.25. Scotia Investments traded firm at $1.95 with 33,456 units, while Scotia Bank traded at a new 52 weeks high and closed at $71.05 and Unilever traded at $55.59, a new 52 weeks high as only 800 units changed hands.

Clico Investment Fund had a volume of 1,302 shares valued at $27,991.50 as the price remained at $21.50.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed bids for 1 stocks being higher and 6 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price, an indication of weakening in demand at least in the short term.

Jamaica Broilers dividend

October 24, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Jamaica Broilers Group declared an unchanged interim dividend of 8 cents per share payable on December 2, 2013 to shareholders on record as at November 5, 2013. The ex-dividend date is November 1.

Last year December, the company paid 8 cents per share as a dividend and they made an interim payment of 6 cents per share on March 28, this year.

Jamaica Broilers Group is an IC Insider’s Buy Rated stock.

Filed Under: Company News, Dividends Tagged With: Dividends, Jamaica Broilers, JSE Company

FX: BOJs intervention pushes rate down

October 23, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Wednesday, 23 October 2013 | Bank of Jamaica’s hands were visible in the forex market on Wednesday with dealers purchasing the equivalent of US$45,935,624 and sold $43,279,962. IC Insider’s source confirmed the central bank’s intervention which led to a slight appreciation in the value for the Jamaican dollar against the US dollar.

Dealers purchased US$41,532,414 at a rate that was down 3 cents to $104.48 and sold US$38,099,208 down 5 cents to $104.94; Canadian dollars for an increase of 87 cents at $100.87 for C$2,222,211 and sold C$3,773,128 at $102.75 down 51 cents and £1,328,476.77at $167.37 an increase of 23 cents and sold £770,750.73 for 99 cents less than on Tuesday at $170.33.

Highs & lows | The highest buying rate for the US dollar went down 25 cents to $106.50, while the lowest buying rate remained unchanged at $85.17 and the highest selling rate for the US dollar remained unchanged at $109.14 but the lowest went up 16 cents to $85.17.

The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar went down $1.50 to $103.00, while the lowest buying rate for remained unchanged at $81.26 and the highest selling rate went up 25 cents to $105.00 as the lowest remained at $97.90.

The highest buying rate for the British Pound went down 70 cents to $171.60, the lowest buying rate went up 66 cents to $135.95. The highest selling rate went down 92 cents to $174.35 while the lowest remained unchanged 163.80.

Filed Under: FX Market, Stock Market Tagged With: BOJ, Daily Trading, FX Market, Trading Activity

JSE: T-bill auction slows JSE trading

October 23, 2013 by IC Insider.com

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Wednesday, 23nd October 2013 | The local stock market has a history of slow days when there are government bond offers and today was no exception with a Treasury bill offer closing during the day.

On a very slow day on the Jamaica Stock Market, trading took place for 2,225,824 shares valued at $13,557,822 as most of the market indices declined marginally, with the Main Market index falling 16.36 to close at 82,304.35, while the all Jamaica index closed at 80,507.91 as it fell by 28.79 and the junior market index inching down by 3.25 to 751.32. There was trading in stocks of 22 companies, with 2 rising, 9 falling and 11 remained unchanged.

Main Market | Carreras exchanged 22,355 units to close firm at $40; Grace Kennedy 36,411 units changed hands, closing down 75 cents at $55.51; Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded just 3,650 units to close down 40 cents at $8.10; Pan Jamaican Investment traded 20,000 units to close at $48.01; Sagicor Investments exchanged 337,696 units and closed at $15.99, down a cent. Sagicor Life saw 55,000 units trading to close at $8.10, down 9 cents; Scotia Group only exchanged 14,748 units to close firm at $20.50.

Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference shares traded 486,600 firm at $2 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference shares traded 558,000 units, closed up 10 cents at $3.

Junior Market | Trading in the junior market saw Caribbean Cream with 500,000 units changing hands to close firm at $1.02, Dolphin Cove put in only 2,000 shares as the price closed down 62 cents at $8. General Accident Insurance swapped just 35,600 shares and closed down a cent at $1.61 followed by Lasco Distributors 20,000 units closing firm at $1.50. Lasco Financial traded 19,500 units at $1.17 while Lasco Manufacturing had 48,200 units that traded firm at $1.45 and Paramount Trading put through 37,810 units to close at $3.30 up 25 cents.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed improvement in market sentiment over Tuesday’s reading with bids for 4 stocks being higher and 3 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price. The junior market had 3 stocks with offers that were lower than the last selling price and bid for just 1 that was higher.

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Daily Trading, JSE Company, Trading Activity

Profits up 80% at Berger Jamaica

October 23, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Berger Paints starts off the new earning season for the quarter to September with improved profit for the six months of $13 million, up 80 percent compared to $7.2 million for the same period in 2012 as sales rose 12 percent to $787.4 million. Importantly, revenues accelerated in the September quarter by 17.8 percent over that of 2012 compared to only a 5 percent increase in the first quarter.

Profit in the latest quarter was up by 76 percent to $16 million and augurs well for the all-important December quarter when it has the bulk of sales and profit.

Cash resources, which amounted to $130 million at the end of the March 2013 year end, is down to $33 million at the end of September. The bulk of the reduction went into working capital which rose from $512 million to $637 million excluding cash funds.

A dividend of 13 cents per share totalling $27.362 million was paid in July, 2013. Berger has no significant borrowed funds used to fund its operations.

If the present trend in revenues and margins continue, profit for 2014 should end up around 35 cent per share compared to 19 cents in 2013 to March. The problem with Berger is its strong reliance on the performance in the wider economy for growth. Right now that is not happening although there are signs of some pick up in the construction sector that the company could benefit from even as large amount of paints are sold for renovation of existing buildings than new start-ups.

Related posts | Economy pressuring Berger

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results Tagged With: Berger Paints, JSE Company

TTSE: Witco up 80c to $119

October 23, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Wednesday, 23rd October 2013 | West Indian Tobacco recorded an attractive gain of 80 cents to end the day at $119 as 2,000 shares traded. Overall activity on the Trinidad market was moderate with trading in 12 securities of which 5 advanced, 1 declined and 6 traded firm as 337,790 shares were traded valued at $2,935,278.

Agostini’s reached a new 52 weeks high trading 17,777 shares valued at $315,186 as the price climbed 13 cents to $17.73. First Citizens traded only 3,700 units to close up a cent at $35. Sagicor Financial Corporation had a volume of 162,031 shares changing hands for a value of $1,174,565 as the price closed firm at $7.25. Trinidad Cement had a volume of 85,000 shares valued at $198,973 with the price closing firm at $2.35. Scotia Investments contributed 30,000 shares with a value of $58,500, the price closed firm at $1.95, while Republic Bank closed up a cent at the end of trading at $112.02, as 474 units traded.

Clico Investment Fund, posted a volume of 32,990 shares valued at $709,285 and closed down by 23 cents to end at $21.50.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed bids for 4 stocks being higher and 3 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Filed Under: Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: Daily Trading, Trading Activity, TTSE

C&W email to Google, October 30

October 23, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Cable & Wireless Jamaica will be moving its mail and portal services to Google Apps by October 30, 2013. In a release to customers, the company stated, “note that no other aspect of your service will be changing as a result of this move. These changes will result in an improvement in the breadth and quality of services. To accommodate for these changes, there are a number of items that you need to be aware of”.

New Password | In preparation for the move to Google, a change to your email password may be required. To be clear, your email address will not change. Once the mail services have been transitioned to Google, your email password will need to be at least eight characters. This change is necessary to be compatible with Google’s security requirements. If your password is already at least eight characters, you need make no change. If not, the company recommends that customers change their password immediately to avoid any possible downtime during the migration.

New User Agreement | LIME’s user agreement has been amended to include Google Terms of Service. The updated agreement can be viewed by simply clicking, here. The use of your cwjamaica.com email address and the associated services means that you accept these terms and conditions.

C&W says there are many advantages to Google Apps. “This includes 7.5+ Gigabytes of web mail storage. This means that your email can remain on the mail server indefinitely. In addition, we will now be able to offer you a more reliable mail service and you will be able to access your mail via your mobile phone or other mobile devices.”

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: C&WJ

FX: US$8M surplus purchases, J$ below $105

October 22, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Tuesday, 22nd October 2013 | The forex market reopened on Tuesday after the Heroes’ holiday closure with the currency purchased by dealers coming in at US$8 million more than the amount sold, only one trading day after the central bank’s intervention resulted in a surplus of US$4.5 million. The surplus should place some downward pressure on the rate in the short term at least.

Total purchases in the market on Tuesday represented two normal trading day’s transactions amounting to the equivalent of US$63,057,239 whiles sales totalled US$54,993,416.

The amount of US dollars purchased by dealers on Tuesday was US$58,328,934 at an average rate of $104.50 representing a 20 cents reduction on Friday’s close, while the amount sold was US$51,014,352 at an average rate of $104.99, down by 2 cents, having slipped back below the $105 mark.

There was buying for C$1,358,257, as the buying rate dropped by 54 cents to $99.997 whiles sales amounted to C$2,010,791 as the selling rate moved up by 87 cents to $103.26.

The amount of British Pounds purchased was £2,011,635 at $167.14, down 84 cents and selling amounted to £1,085,610 at a selling rate that was higher by 80 cents to $171.31.

Highs & lows | The highest buying rate for the US dollar was unchanged at $106.75 but the lowest buying rate increased 17 cents to $85.17. The highest selling rate was unchanged at $109.14 and the lowest selling rate dropped $16.99 to hit $85.01.

The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar climbed $1.50 to end at $104.50. The lowest buying rate was 50 cents higher at $81.26 while the highest selling rate gained 25 cents to $104.75 and the lowest selling increased by 60 cents to $97.90.

The highest buying rate for the Pound was 30 cents higher at $172.30 while the lowest moved up $1.62 to $135.29. The highest selling rate was up $2.27 to $175.27 and the lowest selling gained a $1 to $163.80.

Filed Under: FX Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Daily Trading, FX Market, Trading Activity

JSE: Index up but trading down

October 22, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Tuesday, 22nd October 2013 | On a very slow day on the Jamaica Stock Market, trading took place for 5,766,814 shares valued at $21,261,844 as most of the market indices enjoyed a rare ‘up’ day with the Main Market index gaining 514.60 to close at 82,320.71, while the all Jamaica index which closed at 80,536.70 fell by 905.44. The junior market, which has held up well in the past weeks saw the index inching up by 0.73 to 754.57. There was trading in stocks of 26 companies, with 11 rising and only 3 falling and 15 remained unchanged.

Main Market | Trading in the main market was subdued on the first trading day after the holiday close on Monday. In trading Carreras exchanged 49,207 units to close firm at $40; Desnoes & Geddes, which closed at $5 on Friday, closed today at $4.50 as 40,000 units changed hands; Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 523,000 to close firm at $8.50; National Commercial Bank had only 9,457 units as the price closed up 50 cents at $18.50 but the stock is still weak. Salada Foods traded 13,588 units unchanged at $8.50; Scotia Group only exchanged 30,651 units to close at $20.50 an increase of 50 cents; Supreme Ventures had a big day with 1,395,754 units to close at $2.60 off by a cent and Proven Investments 8% preference, put in 743,000 units at $5.09.

Junior Market | Trading in the junior market saw Access Financial changing ownership of 56,579 units as the price closed firm at $8.40; Blue Power traded 24,918 units and closed at $9.50 for an increase of 22 cents; Caribbean Cream saw 414,165 units changing hands to close firm at $1.02; Caribbean Producers put in a big volume of 2,289,981 as the price closed firm at $2.08 as General Accident Insurance swapped just 14,400 shares at $1.61 followed by Lasco Distributors 31,800 units which closed firm at $1.50. Lasco Manufacturing had 31,400 units that traded firm at the close at $1.45 and Paramount Trading put through 37,810 unit to close at $3.30 up 25 cents.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed slight deterioration in market sentiment over Friday’s reading with bids for 3 stocks being higher and 7 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price. Interestingly, the junior market had 6 stocks with offers that were lower than the last selling price and no bids that were higher.

Image courtesy of watcharakun/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Daily Trading, JSE Company, Trading Activity

Ghana Stock market inching higher

October 22, 2013 by IC Insider.com

The Ghana Stock Exchange, which has been on a tear for 2013 having clocked up 71 percent up to the week ended October 11, went on to record further gains this past week with the market index closing at 2,088.92 points to be up 74.12 percent year-to-date after recording another positive week of gains.

Nine stocks recorded price gains for the week and 3 declined with Ecobank Ghana gaining 11 percent to close at GH¢5, still leaving the PE ratio under 2 times this year’s earnings. SIC Insurance Company gained 5 percent to end at GH¢0.40 but the stock still looks cheap with ongoing earnings resulting in a PE of just over 1 times earnings and Tullow Oil Plc traded up GH¢0.50 to close at GH¢31.70. At the close, the bid for this stock was GH¢32 and the stock now trades at around 25 times 2013 earnings after writing off exploration cost.

The Cedi is the Ghana currency with approximately GH¢2 equals US1 dollar.

Related posts | Ghana stocks now up 71.4% | Big gains in Ghana Stocks