Trading on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange closed on Tuesday with 20 securities changing hands, 12 advanced, 6 declined and 3 traded firm with 2,495,496 units valued at $13,050,346 compared to 4,968,253 units valued at $16,371,552 on Monday.
The Junior Trading ended with an average of 124,775 units for an average of $652, 517 in contrast to 225,830 units for an average of $744,161 on Monday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 301,663 units valued at $1,553,127 compared to 315,269 units valued at $1,622,404 previously. In contrast, July closed with average of 536,395 units at $1,905,441 for each security traded.
Trading ended with the market sentiments looking mixed for Wednesday’s activity, as 4 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 4 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, stocks trading and their last traded prices are: Access Financial closed 5 cents higher and finished at $46.25 with 12,437 shares, 
AMG Packaging climbed 50 cents and ended at $4 with 70,000 shares, Blue Power climbed $1.50 and settled at $41.50 with 30,840 shares, Caribbean Cream rose 70 cents to $6.70 with 50,972 shares, Consolidated Bakeries traded at $2.15 with 106,223 shares, C2W Music gained 5 cents and closed at 43 cents with 10,000 shares, Dolphin Cove added 9 cents and ended at $17.50 with 4,303 shares, Express Catering with a loss of 15 cents, finished at $5.10 with 167,140 shares, General Accident closed at $2.60 with 53,470 shares, Jamaican Teas settled 15 cents higher at $5.15 with 1,753 shares, Jetcon Corporation with a loss of 29 cents, closed at $5.41 with 3,007 shares,
KLE Group ended 5 cents higher at $2.50 with 12,450 shares, Knutsford Express inched 2 cents higher to finish at $14.99 with 5,102 shares, Lasco Distributors lost 20 cents and concluded trading at $6.80 with 98,840 shares, Lasco Financial moved 5 cents higher to $4 with 210,222 shares, Lasco Manufacturing ended 17 cents higher to close at $4.50 with 1,025,000 shares, Main Event with a loss of 17 cents, finished at $4.91 with 11,664 shares, Stationery and Office trimmed 20 cents and finished at $4 with 411,573 shares as some investors move for the exit after a successful public issue and strong gains in the price after listing, tTech jumped $1.44 higher to $7.44 with 190,000 shares and Derrimon Trading preference share, lost 10 cents in traded 20,500 shares at $2.10.
Archives for August 2017
JMMB pretax profit up 16%
JMMB Group profits up 16% before tax to June.
JMMB Group posted a 16 percent increase in pretax profit, for the June 2017 quarter over 2016, but increased taxation left shareholders with a much smaller 4 percent increase to $617 million, as taxes climbed from $264 million to $381 million.
Net revenues jumped 19.4 percent to $4.1 billion from $3.44 billion in 2016, operating expenses rose even faster at 20.5 percent to $3.1 billion. Net interest income improved noticeably, moving from $1.55 to $1.9 billion as interest income grew to $1.96 billion, from $3.62 billion and cost fell modestly to $2.04 billion. Gains from securities trading rose to $1.54 billion from $1.1 billion but with revaluation of the Jamaican dollar, the group earned $238 million in the quarter, down from $443 million as the group also benefited from one off gains in 2016.
The Jamaican operations contributed 23 percent to growth in operating revenues, putting it at 75 percent of overall group revenues while Trinidad with its economic challenges, remained flat with just a one percent increase and Dominican Republic generated an increase of 18 percent.
Growth in managing pension funds, unit trust and money market funds, with assets under management moving from $89.5 billion in June 2016 to $114.75 billion helped in moving fee income up from $298 million to $364 million over the same period.
The group gained commercial banking license approval in Jamaica, in the September quarter, started to convert some branches to accommodate the new thrust and were also preparing for the roll out of their pension fund management in the Dominican Republic.
Total assets grew from $252 billion to $268 billion between March this year and June, shareholders’ equity moved from $25.9 billion to $26.8 billion including $2 billion in investment revaluation reserves at June this year, lending was almost static at $48 billion versus $47 at March. Investment in resale agreements stood at $173.8 billion versus March’s $172.5 billion. Customers’ deposits rose to $50.87 billion from $49 billion in March, while securities sold under repurchase agreements stood at $169.5 billion, up from $156.6 billion as of March, representing a fairly significant increase of $14 billion in just one quarter.
On Monday, JMMB Group closed at $21.50 on the Jamaica Stock Exchange and TT$1.20 (J$22.80) in Trinidad on Monday. IC Insider.com projects earnings of $3 for 2017 up from $2.03 as of March this year, putting the PE at 7 times the March 2018 earnings. The stock continues to be IC Insider.com BUY RATED.
Supreme Ventures profit jumps 41%
Supreme Ventures’ profit rose sharply for the 2017 half year.
Investors responded to strong increase in profit for the six months to June, for Supreme Ventures, by pushing the stock to a record high of $9 on Monday.
Profit surged 41 percent, from $649 million to $918 million after tax, with second quarter profit jumping by a lesser 34 percent to $502 million, from $374 million in 2016. The results translate to earnings per share of 35 cents for the half year and 19 cents for the quarter. The numbers suggest full year earnings of 75 cents, with the stock trading on Monday at $9, it now parades a PE of 12, sitting at the middle of main market listings, but just below the market’s average of 13. Cash flow generated from operations, amounted to just over $1.3 billion for the six months from which $607 million in dividend was paid. $356 million was paid for acquisition of fixed assets after the receipt loan funding of $380 million.
The group reported strong increase in revenues, up 27.5 percent to $14 billion for the quarter and 23.5 percent to $27.4 billion for the six months. The 2017 second quarter figures include revenues for Caymanas Park that was acquired earlier in the year.
Direct cost rose 27 percent in the June quarter, to $12.47 billion and 24 percent year to date to $24.63 billion and operating expenses moved up 29.7 percent to $842 million for the quarter as the cost of the horseracing operations impact cost and 7.3 percent to $1.5 billion for the half year.
The new Caymanas Park horseracing operations brought in revenues of $1.76 billion for the six months period and contributed a loss of $105 million. In the first quarter racing brought in revenues of $328 million and a loss of $19 million. Interestingly, the gaming operations that was a big loss maker in past years contributed $15 million in profit, up from $777,000 in 2016 but down from a profit of $21.4 million in the first quarter, while the Sports betting loss was contained to $34 million, down sharply from $115 million in 2016, but much worse than the loss of $9.5 million in quarter one.
The financial position at June saw total assets of $6.5 billion, including cash of $2.27 billion and non- current assets of $3.17 billion. Shareholders’ equity stood $4 billion and interest bearing debt at debt, at just under $500 million.
Supreme Ventures hits new high – Monday
Supreme Ventures closed at a new all-time high of $9.
Stocks rose modestly on the Jamaica Stock Exchange leading the market indices rising around 100 point continuing the much bigger rise on Friday even as Supreme Ventures closed at an all-time high of $9, after climbing 45 cents in trading 12,960 shares.
Investors were responding to strong increase in profit for the six months to June, moving from $649 million to $918 million.
The All Jamaica Composite Index advanced 101.60 points to close at 276,135.72, the JSE Market Index gained 92.57 points to 251,590.92 and the JSE US dollar market index declined 6.86 points to 178.50.
At the close of trading, 26 securities changed hands in the main market with 3 trading in the US dollar market, leading to 10 stocks advancing and 10 declining. The main market ended with 2,163,104 units valued at $46,639,859 changing hands compared to 7,943,772 units valued at $101,876,271 at the close on Friday. Trading in the US dollar market accounted for 6,508 units valued at US$1,904 bringing the total of all trades to J$46,883,517.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and US dollar markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading was 7 to 1 with 7 stocks closed with bids higher than their last selling prices and 1 with a lower offer.
The main market ended trading with an average of 83,196 units valued at $1,793,841 for each security traded compared to an average of 294,214 units valued at $3,773,195. The average volume and value for the month to date ended at 181,752 units with an average value of $3,695,704 compared with an average of 187,965 units with an average value of $3,854,192 on the previous trading day. The average volume and value for July ended at 160,668 units with an average value of $2,691,438.
At the close of the market, the last traded prices and the volume of securities changing hands are: Barita Investments with a loss of 35 cents, to end at $11.25 with 767 shares, Berger Paints closing $2.45 higher to $16.95 with 19,700 shares, Cable and Wireless gaining 7 cents to $1.27 with 549,196 shares, Caribbean Cement with gains of 45 cents, ended at $28.95 with 16,055 shares, Carreras held firm at $108 with 41,241 shares, Grace Kennedy falling $2.04 to $39.01 with 262,645 shares. Jamaica Broilers rising $1.29, to $17.50 with 247,206 shares, Jamaica Producers climbing $1.23, to $14.98 with 47,619 shares, Jamaica Stock Exchange closing at $6.47 with 28,865 shares. JMMB Group continues inn strong demand following the 604,000 shares traded on Friday with an exchange of 332,817 shares to finish at $21.50. In other main market activity, 
Kingston Wharves closed at $29.50, losing 50 cents with 123,007 shares trading, Mayberry Investments fell 11 cents, to $4.06 with 3,117 shares, NCB Financial Group declined $1.85 to $89.10 with 54,845 shares, 1834 Investments closed at $1.34 with 30,000 shares, PanJam Investment closed at $31.60, losing $1.40 with 2,100 shares and Portland JSX gained 5 cents, to end at $9.30 with 1,200 shares. Pulse Investments rose 1 cent, to $1.95 with 33,620 shares, Radio Jamaica lost 5 cents to $1.30 with 14,702 shares, Sagicor Group traded 75 cents lower, to $31 with 81,938 shares, Sagicor Real Estate fund closed at $12.05, losing 1 cent in trading 10,525 shares, Salada Foods gained 50 cents to close at $10 with 250 shares, Scotia Group declined $1.96 to $45.03 with 130,119 shares, Scotia Investments traded 50 cents higher to $35.51 with 4,500 shares, Seprod gained 9 cents to close at $29.84 with 6,210 shares. Proven Investments US ordinary share gained 1 US cent to end at 24 US cents with 5,663 units, Margaritaville Turks US ordinary share lost 3 US cents, to 30 US cents with 421 units, JMMB Group US 6% preference share closed at US$1.10 with 424 units and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.5% preference share closed at $1.99 with 107,900 units.
Forex inflows climb to US$42M – Monday
Trading in the Jamaican foreign exchange market on Monday ended with inflows of US$42.09 million compared to US$35.35 million on Friday. Bank of Jamaica is entitled to approximately 25 percent of the inflows amounting to $10.52 of Monday’s intake. Outflows amounted to US$30.70 million compared to US$30.09 million of all currencies previously.
In USA dollar trading, inflows ended at US$38.96 million versus US$28.90 million on Friday with outflows of US$27.86 million compared to US$26.16 million.
The value of the Jamaican dollar gained modestly in value against the US dollar, with the selling rate ending at J$128.45 from J$128.50 previously. Dealers bought the US currency at an average of J$127.18, versus J$127.11 on Friday.
The selling rate for the Canadian dollar fell to J$102.12 from J$101.50 at the close on Friday while the British Pound was less costly, with J$164.90 buying the British currency versus J$166.16 and the euro, jumped in value against the Jamaican dollar, with it taking J$152.95 to buy the European common currency, versus J$149.50 previously.
Junior market inched higher on Monday
The majority of Junior Market stocks gained at the close of trading on Monday as 22 securities changing hands. The prices of 9 stocks rose, 7 declined and 6 traded firm, with the market Index rising 7.61 points to end at 3,132.76.
The market closed with 4,968,253 units valued at $16,371,552 changing hands compared to 1,716,953 units valued at $8,024,988 on Friday. KLE Group accounted for 46 percent of trading volume and recently listed Stationery and Office 19 percent.
The Junior Trading ended with an average of 225,830 units for an average of $744,161 in contrast to 85,848 units for an average of $401,249 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 315,269 units valued at $1,622,404, 
compared to 322,723 units valued at $1,695,591 previously. In contrast, July closed with average of 536,395 units at $1,905,441 for each security traded.
Trading ended with the market sentiments looking mixed for Tuesday’s activity, as 7 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, the last traded prices of stocks trading and the volume of securities changing hands are: AMG Packaging ending with 11,050 shares at $3.50, Blue Power traded 1,757 shares at $40, CAC 2000 finished with 20,800 shares at $7.85, Cargo Handlers lost 50 cents and settled at $10.50 with 15,000 shares, Caribbean Cream dropped 74 cents, to end at $6 with 28,405 stock units, Caribbean Producers rose 1 cent and settled at $3.61 with 116,193 shares, Consolidated Bakeries closed at $2.15 with 626,000 shares, Derrimon Trading added 10 cents and finished trading at $7.10 with 10,800 shares, Dolphin Cove ended with a loss of 9 cents, at $17.41 with 14,197 units, Express Catering closing 2 cents higher to settle at $5.25 with 320,722 shares, Honey Bun ending 20 cents higher at $5 with 5,904 shares,
Jamaican Teas settling at $5 with 55,118 shares, Jetcon Corporation climbing 20 cents higher to $5.70 with 95,850 shares, KLE Group finished trading 2,305,004 shares, 35 cents higher to $2.45, Knutsford Express concluded trading with a loss of 3 cents, traded at $14.97 with just 190 units. Lasco Distributors concluded trading 30 cents higher, to $7 with 206,005 shares, Lasco Financial jumped 55 cents higher to settle at $3.95 with 106,434 shares, Lasco Manufacturing lost 41 cents to finish at $4.33 with 20,206 shares, Main Event inched 8 cents higher to $5.08 with 26,603 shares, Paramount Trading finished at $2.94 with 15,000 shares, Stationery and Office declined 29 cents, to $4.20 with 961,015 shares, Sweet River traded just 863 units at $3.52 and tTech with a loss of 90 cents, settled at $6 with 6,000 shares changing hands.
2 Jamaican stocks rise 2 Trini fall
NCB at new record close on the TTSE on Monday.
Trading on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange on Monday resulted in 13 securities changing hands compared to 11 on Friday with the quantity of shares trading rising but with a lower value than on Friday.
The market closed with 2 stocks advancing, 2 declining and 9 holding firm as 538,622 shares traded at a value of $3,830,623 compared to Friday’s trades of 419,313 valued at $7,180,253.
The Composite Index gained 0.33 points to 1,228.65, the All T&T Index declined 0.10 points to 1,792.25 and the Cross Listed Index added 0.10 points to 89.23 points.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended with 3 stocks with bids higher than last selling prices and 5 with lower offers.
Gains| Two Jamaican based companies closed trading with the last traded price being higher than at the close on Friday. NCB Financial Group added 1 cent to close at a 52 weeks’ high of $4.51 with 3,500 units and Scotia Investments exchanged 123,646 shares with a rise of 5 cents to $2.25.
Losses| Stocks trading, with the last prices falling and volumes changing hands were Angostura Holdings with a loss of 1 cent at $15 with 125,000 shares valued at $1,875,249 and National Flour Mills losing 3 cents to end at $2.10 with 12,192 shares.
Firm Trades| Stocks changing hands with the price of the last trade remaining unchanged are Clico Investment with 22,925 units valued at $481,448 at $21, First Citizens exchanging 763 shares at $31.67,Grace Kennedy traded 120,456 shares at $2.85. JMMB Group closing at $1.20 with 100,000 shares, Massy Holdings had just 37 units changing hands at $48.95, Republic Financial Holdings swapped 500 units at $101.90, Scotiabank closed with an exchange of 1,800 shares at $58.02, Trinidad Cement remained at $4.14 trading 7,311 shares and Trinidad & Tobago NGL exchanged 20,492 shares at $23.45 valued at $480,537.
Increased Jamaica Producers’ investments
Jamaica Producers to introduce a new line of banana chips.
Jamaica Producers has been undergoing major changes for a number of years as it morphs from a predominant banana marketing company to a much more diversified group.
The group sold its banana ripening and fruit distribution business in the United Kingdom years ago bought a juice business in Holland and more recently bought more heavily into Kingston Wharves that is now considered a subsidiary.
It also bought out the Tortuga Rum Cake business and relocated production to Kingston. With all of that its core business has only recently started to show sign of profitability that the level of investment demands. In furtherance of improving return on investment in the legacy business as well as newer ones, the group says they will continue a programme of investment that is designed to improve its product and service offering while enhancing its operating efficiency.
In line with this programme, prior to the end of this year, Kingston Wharves will launch new logistics facilities for the warehousing of general cargo, and the storage of bulk and automotive cargo for domestic and transshipment markets. The location of this is slated for lands adjacent to the Tinson Pen airport.
The subsidiary, “JP Tropical Group will commission new state-of-the-art cold storage and ripening facilities at Retirement Road in Kingston for its banana and pineapple business and will introduce a new variety of St. Mary’s banana chip for the first time in 20 years.”
“The group’s head office activities will move from Oxford Road in New Kingston to the locations in Kingston where operations are centred. This will mean that we will enter the 2018 financial year operating from purpose built corporate offices in Newport West with a lower overhead cost base,” the company reported.
“These new initiatives will build on the recent completion of a high specification bakery in Kingston to consolidate the production for international markets of Tortuga Rum Cakes, the launch of a new packaging facility for fresh pineapples in St. Mary, and a new juice line in the Netherlands that deploys high pressure processing technology to extend the shelf life of fresh juice produced by us. We are particularly pleased to report that these completed capital programmes are all contributing positively to the performance of the Group,” Jamaica Producer advised shareholders in a report accompanying the half year results.
The shift of Tortuga Rum Cakes production to Kingston will result in major cost savings for this operation than the other locations within the region, with lower cost and economies of scale for that operation.
Two financial stocks return to TOP 10
Unlike last week when there were several changes to the TOP 10 lists, this past week had just two changes, with Lasco Financial returning to the junior market and Sagicor Group to the Main market lists.
CAC 2000 dropped out of the Junior Marketlisting, allowing for the return of Lasco Financial that dropped sharply in price, to close the week at $3.40. Mayberry Investments was edged out by Sagicor Group, dropping from $34.35 to $31.75 at the close of the past week.
Former TOP main market value stock, 
Barita Investments moved up from $9.40 during the previous week to close at $11.60 for a gain of more than 273 percent since September last year. The most recent Initial Public Offering, Stationery and Office Supplies that exited the TOP 10 after listing in the prior week, is fluctuating between $4 and just over $5, and should undergo some amount of wide price movements until demand and supply find some balance. JMMB Group climbed to $23 on Friday before closing back at $21.45, supply has dried up for this stock and it seems to be readying to make an early exit in the next few weeks.
The average PE ratio for the Junior Market Top stocks is at 7.5 and the PE for the main market TOP 10, ends the week at 7.2. The average PE for the overall main market trades at 13.3 and 13.2 for Junior Market, based on 2017 estimated earnings.
At the close of the week, IC Insider.com’s TOP 10 stocks now trade at an average discount of 42 percent to the average of the market for Junior Market Top stocks and it remains at 46 percent for the main market.
JMMB could continue higher
JMMB Group traded at a 52 weeks’ closing high od $21.45.
Based on the trading activity for the past few days there seems to be increased interest in JMMB Group shares with a sharply declining supply being offered after the company released its first quarter results and announced that they have commenced commercial banking operations in Jamaica.
On Friday the price closed at $21.50 with 782,460 shares traded, after it traded at $23 in the morning session as supply totally dried up at one stage when only a small volume was on offer at $29, the first this has happened in a long time. At the close less than 240,000 units were offered for sales, with most quoted at $22.50. The group reported pretax profit rising to $995 million from $857 million in 2016 but profit after tax just inched up to $613 million from $590 in 2016.
Cable and Wireless came in for buying but sellers were just as interest in selling, in the end supply on the market has been shrinking. The stock could well see side-ways movement during the week, don’t be surprised if the price moves up as supplies around last week’s closing price recedes. NCB Financial Group has seen the price in Trinidad coming close to the Jamaican price on Friday, with demand still strong in that market and no stock on offer. The closing bid in TTSE suggests upward price movement can be expected. Supply in Jamaica is not great, it’s just that buyers are taking their time to acquire and could well be trying to hold out until close to the release of the full year’s results in early November. There was spirited buying of Barita Investments on Thursday gone, with 163,100 units being snapped up aggressively. There was no follow through of such aggression on Friday. It is anyone’s guess where this one will go, in the days ahead, but it is worth watching. Berger Paints pulled back to $14 during the week, with no announcement from its new parent company about the minority holdings. Ansa McAl announced that they would be making a submission about the 20 percent minority holdings in the Trinidad sister company, with no comments about the operations in Jamaica.
Consolidated Bakeries (Purity) stock could fall during coming week.
There is a fair bit of swing in the price of Stationery and Office Supplies with selling coming in during the week, but with buying more subdued than before. Investors can probably expect the price to swing between $4 and $5 for a while. The price could even falling into the $3 to $4 range depending on how fast sellers want to exit. At least that is what the bids and offers suggest, unless there are some increased buying in the week ahead.
Jamaican Teas after reporting nine months results with increased earnings per share over 2016, traded as high as $5.30 during the day but closed at $5 as increased interest was visible for the stock, suggesting that the price could rise further. Jetcon Corporation continues to attract buying interest after posting doubling of profits for the first six months of 2017 and traded as high as $5.70 before pulling back to $5.50 at the close on Friday, with bids to buy in line with the closing price. Paramount Trading came in for some buying with the price recovering from its fall to $2.50 recently after the company stated that they were I the process of constructing the Lubricant plant with operations to commence later this year. Currently supply below $4 is scanty.
Consolidated Bakeries reported a loss in its June quarter leading to a fall in the stock price. Selling continues with more than 660,000 units on offer at $2.15 and weak bids. Further decline is to be expected.
