Trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange ended with 14 securities changing hands, of which 3 advanced, 1 declined and 10 traded firm with a total of 496,344 units, valued at $1,150,956. At the close of the market, the Composite Index lost 0.04 points to close at 1,146.52, the All T&T Index fell by 0.07 just points to close at 1,962.08 and the Cross Listed Index remained unchanged at 43.38.
Gains| Stocks increasing in price at the close are, Unilever Caribbean with a 4 cents gain to $64.15 after trading 133 units to close at a new 52 week’ high, National Commercial Bank with 450,000 shares changing hands for a value of $450,000 closed 2 cents higher at $1 and West Indian Tobacco put on 5 cents to end at $118.61 while trading 300 shares.
Declines| The only stock declining at the end of trading is, One Caribbean Media added 4,235 shares valued at $106,383, falling 13 cents to end at $25.12.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are, Angostura Holdings with 8,137 shares valued at $101,713, traded at $12.50, Clico Investment Fund with 2,970 shares valued at $65,637 ended at $22.10, First Citizens Bank had 1,940 shares trading to end at $36.75, Guardian Holdings had 3,000 units trading at $13.50, Massy Holdings traded 2,134 shares at $68.55, National Enterprises 302 shares ended at $17.50, National Flour Mills 1,000 closed at $1.10, followed by Scotiabank traded 1,547 shares at $58 and Scotia Investments with a volume of 20,646 shares being traded at $1.40.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 4 stocks with the bid higher than their last selling prices and only 1 stock with the offer lower.
14 stocks traded on TTSE
NCB to face $500m wages hit in 2014
National Commercial Bank (NCBJ) advised that the Industrial Disputes Tribunal made an award in respect of salaries and benefits for most of the clerical employees of NCBJ and its subsidiaries (NCB Group).
The award included an increase in salaries of 8 percent per annum for each of the financial years ending September 2013 and 2014. The increases for those years will now have to be paid retroactively. NCB Group said they make provision for salaries to be increased once the award was received, but the increases awarded exceed the amounts provided. The extent to which the retroactive payments for those two financial years exceed the provisions that had been made will be taken into account in the income statement for the financial year ended September 30, 2014. Union leaders for the staff association claimed that the bank offered five percent for 2013 and four percent for the current year. Such an offer would mean that the group would need to book an additional 7 percent to the wage bill. The groups wage bill was approximately $11 billion for the 2013 fiscal year to September and would place the additional charge, somewhere in the $800 million region. The net effect would be closer to $500 million or around 20 cents per share after tax. The bank’s wage bill for the 2013 financial year was $9.5 billion.
IC Insider originally projected earnings of $4.80 per share for the 2014 fiscal year. The adjustment to be reflected in the 2014 accounts will most likely results in a lower out turn.
Revenues up strongly at Access
Access Financial Services’ profit increased 13 percent in the June quarter and is up by 17 percent in the September quarter, to reach $93.57 million that is still down from the robust 30 percent increased profit, in the March quarter.
The third quarter profit grew much more slowly than revenues that grew 31 percent to $272 million and slightly more than in the second quarter’s $267 million and $254 million in the March 2014 quarter.
For the nine months to September, profit is up by 20 percent to $239 million or 87 cents per share. The company becomes taxable in the December quarter, but earnings should surpass $1.20 per share for the full year. In the nine months to September, revenues climbed 37 percent to $793 million from $579 million in 2013, continuing its strong growth trajectory since the shares were listed. The December quarter is traditionally the biggest quarter in income and profit generation. All things being equal, the earnings of 34 cents in the September quarter, should be well surpassed and putting full year earnings around $1.40 per share.
Increase in the provision for bad loans climbed much faster than revenues in 2014 so far, with $54.6 million provided in the latest quarter, bringing the nine months to $169 million compared with $52 million in 2013. The nine months provision amounts to 23.4 percent of the loan income, this is a major increase from 12.6 percent for full twelve months of last year.
Access should generate in excess of 50 percent return on equity for the current year. As of September, equity stood at $744 million, loans on the books is at $1.1 billion, a 26 percent jump from $889 million at September last year. Total borrowed funds used in the financing of the business, amount to $582 million compared to $422 million in September last year, cash funds stand at $146 million.
The company paid a dividend of 36.5 cents per share payable to shareholders on September 1st this year.
5 up 4 down on JSE
Tuesday’s activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, resulted in the prices of 5 stocks rising and 4 declining as 20 securities changed hands, ending in 2,144,368 units trading, valued at 12,272,863.83, in all market segments.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 6 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 10 stocks with offers that were lower.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index lost 76.43 points to 71,566.02 the JSE All Jamaican Composite index declined 85.47 points to close at 78,732.04 and the JSE combined index gained declined by 46.84 points to close at 73,455.89.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Jamaica Broilers exchanged 29,600 shares and rose 15 cents to at $4.15, Jamaica Producers with 13,114 shares as the price ended a cent higher at $15.51.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Berger Paints had 22,799 shares trading at $1.60, Cable & Wireless with 40,855 shares changing hands ended at 29 cents, Jamaica Money Market Brokers had 15,100 ordinary shares changing hands at $7, National Commercial Bank with 422,293 shares traded at $17.55, Proven Investments had 7,000 units to close at 18 US cents, Sagicor Group 7,084 shares closed at $9.60 after trading as high as $10 earlier in the day, Sagicor Real Estate Fund with 16,000 units closed at $6.65, Scotia Investments with 555 shares at $21.40 and recently listed Sterling Investments with 100 shares changing hands, closed at $134.
Declines| The only stock with losing at the end of trading in the main market is, Scotia Group with 52,894 shares to close with a loss of 29 cents at $19.11.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 691,050 units at $3 and Proven Investments 8% preference share traded 6,000 units at $5.
Jamaican$ lost most vs Pound on Tuesday
The Jamaican dollar lost most against the British Pound, but underwent moderate changes with the US and Canadian dollars in trading on Tuesday, as authorized dealers bought US$7 million less funds than was sold. Dealers purchased the equivalent of US$33,265,759 versus US$59,284,131, on Monday and sold the equivalent of US$40,508,881 compared with US$43,206,616 on Monday.
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$27,496,261 compared to US$51,676,419 on Monday. The buying rate for the US dollar lost 5 cents to $112.24 and US$35,263,494 was sold versus US$38,092,548 on Monday, the selling rate rose 4 cent to $112.71. The Canadian dollar buying rate, climbed 78 cents to $99.65 with dealers buying C$3,177,324 and selling C$4,673,998, at an average selling rate that declined 7 cents, to $101.09. The rate for buying the British Pound moved up 31 cents to $179.06, for the purchase of £1,526,729, while £503,224 was sold, at $181.60, an increase of 67 cents. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$512,958, while the equivalent of US$242,382, was sold.
Highs & Lows| The highest buying rate for the US dollar, the lowest buying, the highest selling and the lowest selling rates were unchanged at $112.85, $91.85, $117.70 and $91.85 respectively. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar rose 10 cents to $101, the lowest buying rate fell 16 cents to $79.35, the highest selling rate climbed 20 cents to $103. The lowest selling rate dropped 20 cents to $95.60. The highest buying rate for the British Pound, fell $6.25 to $181.75. The lowest buying rate had no change at $145.08, the highest selling rate eased 86 cents to $187.14 and the lowest selling rate jumped $23.52 to $174.90.
3 junior market stocks rose & 3 fell
The Junior Market closed trading with 819,924 units valued at $903,898. The JSE Junior Market Index rose 2.67 points to close at 659.48, only 6 securities traded, 3 advanced and 3 declined.
At the close of the market, there were 2 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks with offers that were lower. The junior market continues to exhibit weakness with 10 securities closing with no bids to buy. There were 4 securities that had no stocks being offered for sale.
Junior market stocks trading are, Access Financial with 705 shares, lost 47 cents to end at $10.01, Caribbean Producers with 26,028 shares lost 15 cents to end at $2.20, Dolphin Cove had just 200 units changing hands at 50 cents up, at $8.50, Lasco Distributors traded 282,050 units, closed 5 cents higher at $1.25, Lasco Financial Services with 6,940 units, gained 6 cents and closed at 96 cents and Lasco Manufacturing had 504,001 units trading to close at 91 cents after losing 2 cents.
Republic trades big but Is Scotia bottoming?
Scotiabank traded nearly 30,000 shares on the Trinidad Stock Exchange on Tuesday, making it the fourth largest trade since 236,520 units were traded on May 22 at $70, just before the bank released its six months result, showing a sharp fall in profit for its second quarter. Prior to today’s trade, Scotia traded 200,069 units at $68.94, on July 9 and 40,719 shares on July 31, at $66.74 each.
The next closest volume, was a trade of 25,042 units at $60.80, on September 25. The amount traded today has been on offer from October 24 at $58. The big question, is the end of the decline from $70 which started in May, coming to an end? At the close there was a bid to buy only 100 units at $57.50 and a small offer to sell 317 units at $58. The PE ratio of the stock is just over 16 times this year’s earnings, and is close to Republic Banks PE, suggesting that the decline may not have long to run, but buying ahead of the October year end results, may be tempered while the release is pending. Regardless, Investors should be putting this one on their Watch List, now that the price has declined a fair amount.
The Market closed with 14 securities changing hands of which 2 advanced, 3 declined and 9 traded firm, with a total of only 261,908 units, valued at $15,296,503, with Republic accounted for $12 million of the trade, down from Mondays $15.7 million.
At the close of the market, the Composite Index lost 0.62 points to close at 1,146.56, the All T&T Index fell by 1.25 points to close at 1,962.15 and the Cross Listed Index remained unchanged at 43.38.
Gains| Trinidad Cement had 3,949 shares trading, gained 1 cent to end at $2.01 and West Indian Tobacco climbed 4 cents to end the day at $118.56 while trading only 50 shares. The company announced an increased final dividend for 2014 of $1.39, up from $1.07 last year.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are, Angostura Holdings that added 9,627 shares valued at $120,338 to end with a fall of 3 cents at $12.50, First Citizens Bank traded 6,519 shares to close with a loss of 5 cents at $36.75, Republic Bank with 100,076 shares changing hands for a value of $12,084,190, suffered a loss, of 35 cents to close at $120.75.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are, Ansa McAL with 3,525 shares to close at $66.15, Clico Investment Fund with 29,360 shares valued at $648,856 to end at $22.10, Guardian Holdings contributed 5,812 shares at $13.50, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 50,000 shares being closed at 45 cents, Massy Holdings traded 386 shares at $68.55, One Caribbean Media with 1,150 units, closed at $25.25, Praetorian Property Mutual Fund traded 20,000 units to remain at $3.40, Prestige Holdings closed at $9.55 after trading 1,906 shares and Scotiabank contributed 29,548 shares with a value of $1,713,784 to end at $58.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 3 stocks with the bid higher than their last selling prices and 2 stocks with offers that were lower.
Dividend likely for Eppley
The Board of Eppley Limited will meet on Thursday, November 13, to consider the payment of an interim dividend.
For the current year, Eppley paid an ordinary dividend of $9 per share on September 2. An ordinary interim dividend of $9 per share was paid on May 29 and $9 per share was also paid on February 28, this year.
Profit before tax, was up 67 percent for the six months to June this year, but only 21.5 percent in the June quarter, and after tax it was up 112 percent for the quarter, and 119 percent year to date, for a net profit of $29.6 million. There is no tax payable of the profit for the current year, as the company enjoys tax free status for 5 years, under the junior market listing incentive.
Proven to consider a dividend
The Board of Directors of Proven Investments will to consider dividend payments to both its ordinary and preference shareholders at a meeting on November 4.
A dividend of US$0.0022 per ordinary share was paid on December 3, last year. For 2014, the investment company, paid dividends of US$0.0020 per share to ordinary shareholders on June 24 and US$0.0015 per ordinary share, on March 13, this year.
The net profit for the quarter to June 2014, excluding a loss on extra ordinary activities and gain on purchase of subsidiary amounted to US$1.18 million, an increase of 14.3 percent, compared to the same period last year.
JMMB to consider a dividend
The Board of Directors of Jamaica Money Market Brokers will meet on November 7, to consider an interim dividend payment on the company`s ordinary shares.
The company paid a dividend of 17 cents per ordinary share on June 26, this year. A payment of 16 cents per share was made on December 18, last year.
JMMB Group posted net profit of $558 million and earnings per share of 34 cents for the quarter to June this year, 26 percent lower than the $754 million earned in 2013. The decline in the June quarter, contrast with a 5 percent increase in profit for the March 2014 quarter over the 2013 period.
