The Trinidad & Tobago stock market closed with 12 securities being active on Monday with no stock gaining, 5 declining with the prices of 8 remaining unchanged as the stock prices of 3 companies hit 52 weeks’ lows. A total of 42,687 shares changed hands valued at $1,396,341.
The Composite Index fell 0.64 points to 1,162.67, the All T&T Index lost 1.27 points to 1,930.01 and the Cross Listed Index remained at 52.16.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator has turned negative with only 6 stocks with bids higher than the last selling price and 9 stocks with offers that were lower.
Losses| ANSA McAL contributed a mere 20 shares but lost 25 cents in closing at 52 week’s Low of $66, Massy Holdings lost 9 cents to close at new 52 weeks’ low of $59.80 as 110 shares traded. The late 2015 listed, Trinidad and Tobago NGL, fell 10 cents to a new 52 weeks’ low of $19, with 17,420 shares valued at $331,335 changing hands and Unilever Caribbean traded just 430 units to close with a 2 cents fall, to $67.80.
Firm Trades| Calypso Macro Index Fund traded 50 units at $25 each, Clico Investment Fund traded 1,900 shares to close at $22.51.
First Citizens Bank had 16,427 shares changing hands valued at $574,945 and closed at $35. Guardian Holdings had 1,185 units changing hands to close at $14.20, Praetorian Property Mutual Fund contributed 2,000 shares to end at $3, Republic Financial Holdings closed at $112 with 764 shares changing hands. The stock closed with a bid at $112 to purchase 179,818 shares with the offer at $114 to sell 114 units and West Indian Tobacco traded 2,380 units to close at $126.30 with a value of $300,594.
Archives for February 2016
3 new lows on TTSE no gains – Monday
24 stocks rose on JSE – Monday
Berger Paints reported a 61% increase in profits for the 9 months to December 2015, after trading closed.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange closed with 40 securities changing hands in all market segments, 24 of which gained and 8 declined with the junior market index climbing over 2 percent.
Two stocks closed at 52 weeks’ highs one at a 52 weeks’ low and one traded at intraday highs as 12,148,016 units valued at only $49,596,056 changed hands in all markets. The junior market accounted for 1,032,255 units changed hands, valued at $4,390,508.
The JSE Market Index climbed 1,182.30 points to 161,531.59 the all Jamaica Composite Index closed with a rise of 1,321.29 points to end at 179,476.96 and the JSE combined index gained 1,554.59 points to close at 172,394.70.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading was 9 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 1 with a lower offer.
At the end of the market activities, Berger Paints lost 7 cents to end at $3.63 as 26,559 units traded, the company released results to December with an increase of 61 percent in after tax profit of $153.6 million from $95.3 in 2014 for the nine months period on sales that rose 11 percent.
Cable and Wireless ended with 172,447 units changing hands to close at $1.59, Caribbean Cement climbed $1.95 to close at $28.60, with 8,800 shares changing hands. Grace Kennedy fell 50 cents and closed at $82.50, with 15,670 units changing hands but the stock traded on Friday in Trinidad at $4.15 and closed with a bid at $4.18 (J$78.16) on Monday. Jamaica Broilers fell 4 cents to $14.45 with 15,237 shares changing hands, Jamaica Stock Exchange gained 29 cents to $20 with 3,500 units trading, JMMB Group traded 26,728 units but gained 10 cents to end at $11, Kingston Wharves traded 9,245 units to close with a gain of 10 cents at $11.19. Mayberry Investments had 4,386 shares changing hands but rose 15 cents to $4.50, National Commercial Bank (NCB) traded 57,900 shares but rose $1.89 to close at $42.99 two trading days after the banking group released interim results to December, last year with a 12 percent increase in aftertax profit to $2.4 billion, from $2.1 billion. NCB stock traded in Trinidad on Friday at the equivalent of $5.20. 
Pan Jamaican Investment dropped $4 with just 2,930 units changing hands to close at $94, Pulse Investments traded 10,002,000 shares with a fall of 3 cents to close at $3.22 as Barita Investments crossed 10 million units. Sagicor Group gained 10 cents to close at $23 with 102,424 units changing hands, Scotia Group had 77,925 shares changing hands to close with a rise of 56 cents at $31.56, Scotia Investments had 1,000 shares trading to close with a gain of $1.90 at $29.90. Supreme Ventures closed at $6.20 and gained of 20 cents with 70,381 units changing hands, Proven Investments ordinary share traded 77,700 units to close at 22.89 US cents and JMMB 7.5% preference share traded 179,778 units at $2.25 after regaining 15 cents.
JSE lukewarm to election
The Jamaica Stock Exchange in the first day of trading since Sundays announcement by Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller announcement of general elections in Jamaica is responding in a luke-warm manner with very moderate trading to start the day but the market indices posted good gains so far.
The PM announced February 25 as election day, with polls showing her party having slipped by 2 percentage points in the latest public opinion poll but with her opponents falling by over 6 percentage points.
After 75 minutes of trading, only 21 securities traded accounted for a mere 667,467 units changing hands with 8 stocks rising and 4 falling. The all Jamaica Composite Index climbed 709.62 points to 178,865.29, the JSE Market Index rose 634.97 points to 160,984.26, the JSE combined index gained 942.93 points to 171,783.04 and the junior market index fell 38.11 points to 2,212.92.
Caribbean Producers with just 1,500 shares was one of the highlights of the early morning session as it added 40 cents to trade at $5.90.
Jamaica’s unemployment falls
Jamaica’s Unemployment Rate fell by 0.7 percentage point in towards the end of September but remains at a stubborn 13.5 percent of persons said to be in the workforce, a decrease from to 14.2 percent at the same time in 2014.
Over the period, the unemployment rate for males declined from 9.9 percent to 9.3 percent and for females from 19.4 percent to 18.5 percent.
The number of persons Unemployed in September 2015 was 178,600, a decrease of 7,600 compared with 186,200 in September 2014. “The largest increase in the number of employed persons occurred in the industry group ‘Hotels and Restaurants Services’ and ‘Real Estate, Renting & Business Activities’ with a total of 23,700 persons,” the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) said.
A total of 22,600 more workers were employed compared with September 2014 bringing the total to 1,146,600 employed persons in September 2015.
Government capital spend jumps $3.7b
Peter Phillips – Minister of Finance
Tax revenues continue to be on a positive path, with $6.6 billion over budget but grants are below by $3.1 billion resulting in revenues surplus of $2.5 billion. Government over spent on wages in the tune of $2.3 billion taking the total spend to $126.6 billion but interest cost continues to be lower than forecast by almost $5 billion at $91 billion. Spending on other expenses was below forecast by $3 billion. The overall deficit was in line with forecast, at $14.7 billion and the primary surplus was nearly a billion more than planned at $66 billion.
