Purchases by dealers of foreign currencies on Wednesday, resulted in the Jamaican currency selling rate slipping against the US dollar and the Pound sterling but rising against the Canadian. The market closed with dealers buying the equivalent of US$28,433,391 in contrast to US$32,658,423 on Tuesday, while they sold the equivalent of US$32,813,136, previously US$28,334,621.
In US dollar trading , dealers bought US$26,458,016 compared to US$29,530,916 on Tuesday. The buying rate for the US dollar rose 4 cents to $117.05 and US$31,311,436 was sold versus US$25,844,376 on Tuesday, the selling rate gained 27 cents to $117.69. 
The Canadian dollar buying rate dropped 29 cents to $86.50 with dealers buying C$779,846 and selling C$853,019, at an average rate that declined $1.79 to $89.08. The rate for buying the British Pound dropped $1.23 to $180.92 for the purchase of £807,895, while £468,568 was sold, at an average rate that recovered $2.18 to $183.66. At the end of trading, it took J$134.19 to purchase the Euro, with a fall of $1.94 from Tuesday’s rate, according to data from Bank of Jamaica, while dealers purchased the European common currency at J$131.52, a decline of $1.83 on Tuesday’s rate. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$150,253, while the equivalent of US$124,760 was sold.
Highs & Lows| The highest buying rate for the US dollar, rose 12 cents to $118, the lowest buying rate fell $2.03 to $96.15, the highest selling 
rate fell 37 cents to $123.21 and the lowest selling rate rose $6.93 to $96.15. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar rose 10 cents to $88.80, the lowest buying rate gained 8 cents to $70.88 and highest selling rate remained at $91.27. The lowest selling rate dropped 30 cents to end at $85. The highest buying rate for the British Pound, eased 40 cents to $184.50, the lowest buying rate rose $1 to $149.57, the highest selling rate dropped $1.25 to $190.28 and the lowest selling rate fell $1.50 to $177.50.
Archives for August 2015
J$ drops 27 cents vs US on Wednesday
Jamaica economy crawls slowly
Real GDP is assessed to have expanded within the range of 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent for the June 2015 quarter by Bank of Jamaica, Governor of the bank, Bryan Wynter, said today.
The bank said the estimated outturn for the review quarter, “mainly reflects continued expansion in Mining & Quarrying, Hotels & Restaurants, Transport, Storage & Communication, Construction and Wholesale & Retail Trade”. There were estimated declines in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing reflecting the impact of the intensification of dry conditions which started in the March 2015 quarter.
Given the anticipated impact of drought conditions, for FY2015/16 real GDP is forecasted to expand within the range of 1.0 per cent to 2.0 per cent. This projection is contingent on recovery in the mining and manufacturing sectors, assuming there is no recurrence of the production disruptions which occurred in the previous fiscal year. In addition, the economy is projected to continue to benefit from improvements in the business environment, consumer and business confidence as well as continued gains in external competitiveness.
New units being built at Montego Freeport in Montego Bay this year.
Declining stocks clobber advancers on JSE
VMBS Wealth acquired the bulk of shares trading in connection with the pension funds they manage.
At the close, the JSE Market Index fell 262.83 points to 98,086.58. The JSE All Jamaican Composite index lost 293.77 points to close at 108,573.44 and the JSE combined index dropped 272.27 points to end at 100,777.77.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had a reading that reflects continuation of declining stocks having the upper hand over advancing ones. There was slightly less bias to the downside, than at the close of trading on Tuesday, with Wednesday’s reading of 7 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 9 with offers that were lower.In trading, Cable and Wireless fell 1 cent with 110,387 units and closed at 42 cents, Caribbean Cement had 54,911 units changing hands at $8, Carreras closed with 1,149,666 shares trading 50 cents lower at $49.49, with the bulk of the shares being a product of the VMBS Wealth pension portfolio shift. Grace Kennedy closed with 1,400,261 shares trading $64, Jamaica Broilers traded at $7 with just 1,000 shares changing hands, with a gain of $1.40. Jamaica Stock Exchange traded 2,105,142 shares at $7.89, JMMB Group traded 8,582,455 shares, including shares associated with the VMBS Wealth pension fund change, to close at $7.52, Kingston Properties had 664,191 shares trading for a fall of $1.01 to end at $6.99, National Commercial Bank traded 569,187 shares to end with a decline of 73 cents at $28.02.
Pan Jamaican fell 25 cents to end at $61 with 802,473 units changing hands, Radio Jamaica traded 37,900 shares unchanged at $3.01, Sagicor Group with 2,973,500 shares changing hands, closed 5 cents higher at $13. Scotia Group traded 198,010 units to close with a loss of 60 cents at $23.76, Scotia Investments traded 440,000 shares to close at $27.69 for a fall of 1 cent, Supreme Ventures ended at $3.40 with 13,828 units to be down by 40 cents and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 100,000 units to close at a 52 weeks’ low of $2.94, for a loss of 4 cents.
Lasco Manufacturing trades 14m shares
Lasco’s water treatment machines – there was more than 12M units trading on Wednesday.
At the close, 4 securities ended with no bids to buy, while 3 had no stocks being offered for sale and 3 stocks closed with bids higher than the last traded prices and 2 with the offers being lower.
Stocks trading are, Access Financial Services with 100 shares to close at $11, with a gain of 50 cents. At the close the bid was at $12 to buy 2,000 units, AMG Packaging closed with a loss of 21 cents at $3.74 with 290,000 units changing hands, Blue Power closed with 4,806 units changing hands to close at $12.30 with a loss of 5 cents. Caribbean Producers traded just 939 units with a loss of 17 cents at $2.72, Consolidated Bakeries traded 30,000 shares at $1.29 after shedding 24 cents, General Accident Insurance traded 70,200 units with the price closing unchanged at $1.50, Honey Bun ended with 17,662 shares trading unchanged at $3.70, Jamaican Teas had only 196 shares trading to close at $3.12.
Lasco Distributors closed with 1,594,030 units trading, ended with a gain of 2 cents at $1.62. Lasco Financial ended with 124,699 shares changing hands at $1.80, for a rise of 17 cents, Lasco Manufacturing gained 2 cents in closing at $1.72 with 12,053,445 units changing hands. Medical Disposables traded 13,000 shares to close unchanged at $2.50, Paramount Trading ended with 3,975 units changing hands unchanged at $6 and Eppley cumulative preference share 2019, ended with 50,000 units changing hands at $6.05.
5 down 1 up on TTSE Wednesday
JMMB Group the only stock gaining on Wednesday
At the close, the Composite Index declined by 0.30 points to 1,142.18, the All T&T Index gained 0.30 points to 1,948.14 and the Cross Listed Index lost 0.12 points to 44.09.
Gains| JMMB Group traded 22,490 shares gained 3 cents to close at 45 cents.
Losses| Ansa Merchant Bank traded 1,455 units with a 5 cents loss to end at $38.90, National Enterprises with 4,350 shares changing hands, and lost 1 cent, to close at a 52 weeks’ low at $16.99, National Flour Mills with 251,646 shares changing hands for a value of $529,077 lost 10 cents to end at $2.10. One Caribbean Media traded 91 shares with the price falling 31 cents to $22 and Sagicor Financial Corporation closed with 30,421 shares changing hands at 25 cents lower at $5.75.
Firm Trades|, Clico Investment Fund traded 42,420 shares valued at $954,450 and closed at $22.50, First Citizens Bank had 1,337 shares changing hands and ended at $35,
Guardian Holdings added 18,639 shares to close at $12.90. Guardian Media added 1,070 shares to close at $19.76. Massy Holdings had 25,499 shares valued $1,593,688 trading Scotiabank closed with 1,984 shares changing hands unchanged at $62.32 and ended at $62.50 and Trinidad Cement closed at $2.75 with 12,495 shares changing hands.IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 7 stocks with the bid higher than their last selling prices and 3 stocks with offers that were lower.
MVL & VMBS Wealth big trades on Wednesday
MVL Stockbrokers sold a series of large trades in several stocks in early Wednesday trading and VMBS Wealth was the main buyer in what appears to be prearranged trades. The trades had negligible impact on the market indices. IC Insider has been reliably informed, that the trades reflect transfer of shares that were held at the JCSD under broker MVL Stockbrokers for VMBS Wealth pension funds and have been transferred to VMBS Wealth as the brokerage house. So far its is unclear why the change was not effected by a instructions to the Stock Exchange to simply switch the broker’s accounts.
A total of 32 securities with a volume of only 32,708,601 units valued at $359,295,340 have traded with 13 stocks declining versus only 6 that rose.
The All Jamaica Index trades at 108,749.59 to dip 117.62 points, JSE Market Index fell 105.24 points to 98,244.17. The combined index slipped 114.26 points to be at 100,935.78 and the junior market index 916.82, down 1.66 points.
Significant trades are Grace Kennedy with 1,399,021 units, Jamaica Stock Exchange 2,105,142 shares, JMMB Group 8,580,291 shares Lasco Manufacturing 12,000,000 units and Sagicor Group 2,940,000.
JSE drops back again on Tuesday
The Jamaica Stock Exchange on Tuesday closed with main market indices dropping once more with declining stocks exceeding advancing ones but with a big jump in the amount of money involved in the trades. The market closed with a fairly high participation rate of 32 securities changing hands.
there were 9,467,807 units trading, valued at $111,559,301 with JMMB Group and National Commercial Bank accounting for the largest trades. At the close 7 stocks rose, 10 declined, in all market segments and the JSE Market Index fell 422.05 points to 98,349.41. The JSE All Jamaican Composite index lost 471.73 points to close at 108,867.21 and the JSE combined index dropped 671.77 points to end at 101,050.04.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had a reading that reflects continuation of declining stocks having the upper hand over advancing ones with 6 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 12 with offers that were lower.
In trading, Cable and Wireless gained 3 cents with 77,930 units and closed at 43 cents, Caribbean Cement had 436,403 units changing hands at $8, Carreras closed with 253,200 shares trading 91 cents lower at $49.50, Grace Kennedy closed with 500,134 shares trading $64, Jamaica Broilers traded at $5.60 with 119,948 shares changing hands. JMMB Group traded 1,957,370 shares to close 2 cents up at $7.52, Mayberry Investments ended with 200,000 
shares changing hands to close at $3.40 for a gain of 52 cents, National Commercial Bank traded 980,250 shares to end with a decline of $1.25 at $28.75, Pan Jamaican gained 55 cents to end at $61.25 with 5,500 units changing hands. Radio Jamaica traded 20,000 shares unchanged at $3.01, Sagicor Group with 40,000 shares changing hands, closed 1 cent lower at $12.95, Sagicor Real Estate Fund with 76,290 shares closed 50 cents lower at $7.80. Scotia Group traded 200,000 units to close with a loss of $1.64 at $24.36, Supreme Ventures ended at $3.80 with 112,413 units to be up by 46 cents and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference share traded 499,600 units at $2.
J$ mostly gains on Tuesday
Purchases by dealers of foreign currencies on Tuesday, resulted in the Jamaican currency selling rate making gains over the US dollar and the pound sterling but falling against the Canadian. The market closed with dealers buying the equivalent of US$32,658,423 in contrast to US$43,832,057 on Monday, while they sold the equivalent of US$28,334,621, previously US$40,717,404.
In US dollar trading , dealers bought US$29,530,916 compared to US$39,120,041 on Monday. The buying rate for the US dollar rose 6 cents to $117.01 and US$25,844,376 was sold versus US$38,623,639 on Monday, the selling rate fell 18 cents to $117.42. 
The Canadian dollar buying rate dropped 80 cents to $86.79 with dealers buying C$1,135,297 and selling C$1,400,844, at an average rate that rose $1.72 cents to $90.87. The rate for buying the British Pound rose 74 cents to $182.15 for the purchase of £1,387,419, while £671,699 was sold, at an average rate that fell $2.18 to $181.48. At the end of trading, it took J$136.13 to purchase the Euro, with a rise of $3.06 from Monday’s rate, according to data from Bank of Jamaica, while dealers purchased the European common currency at J$133.34 for a gain of $3.05 on Monday’s rate. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$125,525, while the equivalent of US$381,403 was sold.
Highs & Lows| The highest buying rate for the US dollar, rose 3 cents to $117.88, the lowest buying rate jumped $4.88 to $98.18, the highest selling 
rate remained at $123.58 and the lowest selling rate dropped $6.97 to $89.22. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar fell $1.23 to $88.70, the lowest buying rate declined 37 cents to $70.80 and highest selling rate fell $1.07 to $91.27. The lowest selling rate dropped 45 cents to end at $85.30. The highest buying rate for the British Pound, eased 45 cents to $184.90, the lowest buying rate rose 58 cents to $148.57, the highest selling rate gained 75 cents to $191.53 and the lowest selling rate put on 70 cents to $179.
Junior market drops 12% from peak
Trading finished with 4 stocks declining and 1 gaining out of 12 securities that traded, resulting in 3,952,442 units, valued at $11,099,945 changing hands. The market lost 30.25 points to close at 918.48, having shed 122 points or 12 percent since it peaked at 1,040.59 on August 11.
The August decline is a bit worse than the 10 percent pull back, after it recorded a peak of 934.69 on June 10, to bottom out on July 27. The sharp movement by junior market stocks is characteristic of the market around the release of results going back from the early days of the junior market index. At the close, 4 securities ended with no bids to buy, while 4 had no stocks being offered for sale and 2 stocks closed with bids higher than the last traded prices and 4 with the offers being lower.
Stocks trading are, Access Financial Services traded 1,500 shares to close at $10.50, with a gain of 50 cents at the close the bid was at $11 to buy 1,000 units. The stock has been trading on thin volumes, with support mostly around the $10 region. AMG Packaging closed at $3.95 with 4,000 units changing hands, Caribbean Cream traded 67,000 units to close 20 cents lower at $1.60. 
Caribbean Flavours traded 10,000 units unchanged at $2.75, Caribbean Producers traded just 3,077 units at $2.72, General Accident Insurance traded 274,062 units with the price closing unchanged at $1.50, Jamaican Teas had 2,000,000 shares trading to close at $3.12, Lasco Distributors closed with 476,042 units trading, ended down 20 cents at $1.60. Lasco Financial ended with 500,000 shares changing hands at $1.63 for a fall of 2 cents, Lasco Manufacturing with 240,261 units changing hands, closed at $1.70, with a fall of 15 cents, Paramount Trading ended with 2,500 units trading unchanged at $6 and Eppley 9.5% preference share ended with 374,000 units changing hands at $6.05.
55% repo rate hike pressuring TTSE
Massy Holdings shed 51 cents on Tuesday & helped pull TTSE down.
In Tuesday’s trading, 10 securities changed hands, one stock gained while the prices of 2 declined pulling down the TTSE two main indices and 7 traded with prices unchanged as a total of 428,778 shares traded, valued at $7,240,375. At the close, the Composite Index declined by 1.04 points to 1,142.48, the All T&T Index fell 2.21 points to 1,947.84 and the Cross Listed Index rose 0.02 points to 44.21.
Gains| Scotia Investments closed 2 cents higher with 30,000 shares changing hands at $1.53, to be the sole stock gaining.
Losses| Massy Holdings had 2,410 shares trading to end at $62.50, after shedding 51 cents and Trinidad Cement suffered a loss of 15 cents to close at $2.75 with 2,120 shares changing hands.
Firm Trades|, ANSA McAL contributed 26,740 shares with a value of $1,798,265 and closed at $67.25, Ansa Merchant Bank traded 984 units at $38.95, Clico Investment Fund traded 189,123 shares valued at $4,256,983 and closed at $22.50, First Citizens Bank had 9,285 shares changing hands valued at $324,975 and ended at $35. Guardian Media added 500 shares to close at $19.76, JMMB Group traded 122,958 shares to close at 42 cents and Sagicor Financial Corporation closed with 34,658 shares changing hands at $6, for a value of $207,948.IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 7 stocks with the bid higher than their last selling prices and 4 stocks with offers that were lower.
