The Jamaica Stock Exchange closed on the first trading day of August with moderate gains in the market indices on Tuesday, but advancing stocks were just edged out losers. A total of 31 securities traded, with 11 rising, 12 declining, including 7 stocks, rising and 3 falling in the junior market, as the market continues to consolidate.
The JSE Market Index rose 101.94 points to end at 159,923.90 the all Jamaica Composite Index gained 114.00 points to close at 177,685.16 and the JSE combined index rose 219.30 points, to end at 171,046.97.
The market closed trading, with 2,798,225 units valued at $141,568,340 changing hands, in all market segments. The junior market accounted for 478,536 units traded, valued at $2,513,232 of all trades.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading showed 11 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 with lower offers.
At the end of market activities, Berger Paints traded 1,608 shares to end at $4.55, Cable & Wireless fell 2 cents in trading 149,674 shares to close at $1.15, Carreras rose 7 cents in exchanging 4,125 shares at $64.97, Grace Kennedy closed at $125 with 11,322 shares changing hands. Jamaica Broilers ended with 1,559,831 shares changing hands with a 49 cents gain to close at $15, Jamaica Producers gained 10 cents in trading 1,590 shares to end at $8.25. Jamaica Stock Exchange dropped 50 cents to end at $22 while trading 7,200 shares, JMMB Group fell by 5 cents in trading 34,044 units to end at $9.90, Kingston Wharves with 5,221 units changing hands, closed at $15.50. National Commercial Bank lost 45 cents with 14,133 units changing hands, to close at $42.05,
Pan Jamaican traded 5,934 shares and fell 46 cents to end at $25.01. Radio Jamaica lost 15 cents to close at $1.40 after 6,990 shares changed hands, Sagicor Group ended with a fall of $1.10 while 41,845 shares changed hands at $21.40. Sagicor Real Estate Fund traded just 1,442 shares but rose 40 cents to close at $10.50. Supreme Ventures ended at $4.51, with 5,100 units changing hands, Proven Investments traded 50,250 units to close at 18 US cents for a fall of 1 US cent and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference share traded 417,560 units to close at $2.09.
Archives for August 2016
JSE opens August positively
GOJ revenues grow faster than plan
Minister of Finance Audley Shaw
Revenues for the first quarter are running 11 percent or $12 billion ahead of the 2015 first quarter revenues. Recurrent spending dropped sharply by 8 percent against budget to hit $122.7 billion from a budget of $133.5 billion. The net result of the increase in revenues and reduced expenditure is a reduction in the fiscal deficit of just $7.5 billion, down by $26.8 billion projected.
Revenue in take for the two period is just over $9.2 billion or 15 percent ahead of the similar period for 2015. The primary surplus that was budgeted at $11 billion is now at $26.8 billion.
Tax revenues jumped 7.8 percent or $7.9 billion over forecast with the excess over budget flowing mainly from the following, corporation tax of $1.66 billion, PAYE $457 million, local GCT $2.4 billion, local stamp duty $680 million, education tax $300 million. GCT on imports accounted for $1.5 billion of the excess inflows while custom duty chipped in with $422 million but travel tax fell by $380 million.
Collector of Taxes office, Constant Spring, Kingston.
The increase in revenues is in keeping with a trend seen in the first 9 months of 2015 when revenues were growing well ahead of forecast.
The savings in the cost of debt servicing, plus the increased revenues above budget, translate to $11.8 billion or $47 billion over a full 12 months, should the trend continue, well in excess of the cost of the tax break agreed for personal income tax.
Crude oil falls set for more losses
Fuel prices at the pumps in May 2015.
Excess inventories said to be near the 97-year high reached in April and increased drilling has pushed the price down to US$40 per barrel on Monday. Technical indicators point to a fall to the low, between US$35 to US$30, before too long.
Increased drilling and the rise in supplies will add more downward pressure on prices going forward, it will take a very long time for inventories to normalize. Added to this, is the pressure that investors have placed on prices, as they continue to sell oil short, at an increasing pace.
For every US$1 fall in the price, Jamaica will save approximately US$9 million per year. The fall back of oil prices will result in lower electricity and transportation cost for the majority of the region and boost companies profits.
Loans to surge at Jamaica National
Jamaica National enjoyed a 10 percent increase in loans at the end of March this year over March 2015 to $66 billion inclusive mortgages that rose from $56 billion to $61 billion. Based on loans approved and not disbursed at the end of March, the loans portfolio seems set to climb at a much faster pace than for 2016 fiscal year.
According to the societies’ financials, loans approved but not yet disbursed jumped by a sharp 168 percent to $7.36 billion or 12 percent of outstanding loans, up from $2.75 billion or 4.9 percent of the loan portfolio at March 2015.
Jamaica National, Jamaica’s largest building society had a mix fortunes in fiscal year 2016 with assets climbing by 8.8 percent to $181 billion. Investment securities made up the bulk of the assets at $94 billion. Equity capital stood at $31.2 billion and savers deposits of $101.4 billion up from$90 billion in 2015.
The society suffered a sharp drop of 44 percent in profits to $1.42 billion from $2.53 billion in 2015. For the year to March 2014, profit jumped to $2.3 billion from only $908 million in the previous year.
Contributing to profit for the year was net interest income growing from $8.5 billion to $8.8 billion, other operating income that fell from $6.2 billion to $5.9 billion and operating expenses climbing from $11.8 billion to $13.3 billion.
