Market activity on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange ended on Monday in 15 securities trading compared to 15 on Friday, with 5 advancing, 2 declining and 8 remaining unchanged.
At close of the market, the Composite Index gained 0.67points to 1,334.36. The All T&T Index fell 2.50 points to 1,769.70, while the Cross Listed Index gained 0.54 points to close at 121.31.
Trading ended with 211,344 shares at a value of $3,342,097 compared to 188,861 shares for $1,462,541 on Friday. IC bid-offer Indicator|The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended at 7 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 with lower offers. Stocks ending with gains| At the close of the market, First Citizens rose 13 cents to settle at $36.70, after exchanging 1,200 shares, NCB Financial Group added 10 cents and settled at $8.45, in exchanging 59,981 shares. Point Lisas increased by 5 cents and ended at $3.65, with 1,000 stock units changing hands, Prestige Holdings rose 5 cents and completed trading with 30 units at $8.05 and Trinidad & Tobago NGL closed with a gain of 5 cents at $29.50 with an exchange of 8,575 units.Stocks closing with losses| Clico Investments fell 21 cents and ended at $22.39, with 96,320 stock units changing hands and JMMB Group closed with a loss of 3 cents and ended at $1.70, after exchanging 11,000 shares. Stocks closing firm| Angostura Holdings ended at $15.80, with 200 stock units changing hands, Ansa Mcal completed trading at $55.94, with 2,116 units, Grace Kennedy ended at $3.30, with 17,000 stock units changing hands, Guardian Holdings completed trading at $18.80, with 2,100 units. National Flour completed trading of 1,500 units, at $1.75, Sagicor Financial closed at $8.60, after exchanging 4,000 shares, Trinidad Cement settled at $2.55, after trading 2,445 shares and Unilever Caribbean exchanged 3,877 shares at $26.30.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Trading on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange fell sharply on Monday with an exchange of just 486,748 units valued at $2,074,395 compared to 4,264,462 units valued at $16,060,112 on Friday.
At the close of market activities, the market index lost 6.39 points to close at 2,964.43 as the prices of 8 securities advanced, 9 declined and 6 remained unchanged as 23 securities changed hands, compared to 24 on Friday. IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 6 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 7 with lower offers.
Trading ended with an average of 21,163 units for an average of $90,191 in contrast to 177,686 units for an average of $669,171 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 88,152 units valued $318,072 and previously, 91,615 units valued $329,850 for each security traded. In contrast, March closed with an average of 195,942 shares valued at $777,498 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging ended at $2.23, with 2,000 stock units changing hands, Caribbean Cream ended trading of 1,902 shares to gain 20 cents and close at $5.50, Derrimon Trading ended 10 cents higher at $2.80, with an exchange of 32,538 shares. Dolphin Cove concluded trading of 70,500 shares with a loss of $1.95 at $12.05, Everything Fresh closed at $1.48, with an exchange of 17,000 stock units, Elite Diagnostic settled 2 cents higher at $2.95, trading 5,000 units, Express Catering ended trading with 2,500 shares but fell 50 cents to $7.50. FosRich Group traded at $4, with 23,599 shares changing hands, Fontana finished trading 51,445 shares having risen 4 cents to $3.99, GWest Corporation ended with a loss of 4 cents at $1.31, trading 21,480 units, Honey Bun concluded trading of 4,586 shares for 19 cents higher at $4, iCreate traded 79,450 shares to close at 90 cents. Indies Pharma finished 10 cents higher at $3.20, with 62,791 shares crossing the exchange, Jamaican Teas traded 27,812 units with a loss of 10 cents at $3.50, Jetcon Corporation finished trading of 3,724 shares, with a loss of 5 cents to close at $2.35, Key Insurance closed 10 cents higher at $3.25, with swapping of 2,500 shares. Knutsford Express concluded trading of 338 stock units and rose 49 cents higher to $12.99, Lasco Distributors finished 1 cent higher at $3.52, with 46,495 units changing hands, Lasco Manufacturing ended trading at $3.20, with 6,309 shares, Main Event traded with a loss of 50 cents at $5.30, after trading 12,594 shares. Paramount Trading closed with a loss of 3 cents at $2.47, trading 4,000 units, SSL Venture Capital ended with a loss of 4 cents at $1.50, with 2,185 shares changing hands and Stationery and Office traded 6,000 shares with a loss of 75 cents at $6.75.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange main market closed at a new record high on Monday All Jamaican Composite Index surging 9,373.64 points to 435,257.80 and the JSE Index advanced by 8,518.11 points to 396,523.86 as Carib Cement price ended at a record high of $77.99.
Investors were responding to strong first quarter results in buying up 274,801 shares up to $79.50. Also contributing to the strong gains was Sagicor Group that closed at $47.50 up from a close of $44 on Friday.
The market is breaking the all time record closing high reached on November 29 last year of 433,307.22 on the All Jamaica index and 394,791.89 on the JSE Index. The market needs to close solidly above 440,000 points on the AJI for this rally to be sustained.
Some good signs are there present for a possible big day on Tuesday with NCB Financial that traded 2.12 million shares to close at $143.50, closing with a bid of $148, PanJam Investment that closed at $83 having a bid at $85. Wisynco Group closed at a record high of $12.50 have just less than 96,000 shares on offer between $12.50 and $16.
Caribbean Cement is the clear leader as the stock to watch for this week, with the company posting blowout first quarter profit of $1.13 billion or $1.33 per share up from only $348 million in 2018.
The sharp rise in profit resulted mainly from the removal of lease of equipment cost and cost of imported cement. The result is a tad below what IC Insider.com forecast of $7 per share for 2019would suggest, but is in keeping with that forecast on the basis of expected pick up in sales as the year rolls on.
The head of one of the country’s largest brokerage houses, advised his team about the results. “Please make sure all CCC on the sell side are cancelled before market opens on Monday. All clients must be informed of the results before any sales orders can be placed.” The coded message here is that the stock price will jump sharply in trading on Monday. Keep on watching this one. Sagicor Group had buying up to $44 on Friday and should continue to attract investors’ interest. NCB Financial Group came out with a fall in profit for the March quarter and is unlikely to see buying coming in to move the price even if they announce the closure of the Guardian acquisition of majority shares. Supreme Ventures released flat March results that may put pressure on the stock price that is selling close to 30 times 2019 earnings.
Wisynco, most attractively priced main market stock.
Continue to keep an eye on Wisynco that closed at $12 on Friday with increased buying interest during the past week as the company continues to expand the volume of products it represents that augurs well for increased profit going forward. The stock remains one of the most appealing main market buys currently. RJR and Seprod remain attractive buys and continue on the watch list along with Barita Investments that seems set to post very strong second quarter results.
The picture for the Junior Market is unclear but with Caribbean Cream full year results to February, are now due and will provide information in directing the stock price. Added to the list are Honey Bun that holds its annual general meeting on Monday that may provide price sensitive information and Stationery and Office Supplies.
Profit at Jamaica’s sole producers of cement soared 234 percent in the quarter to March, to $1.1 billion from just $347 million in 2018 and wiped out the years of losses and plunging it into a surplus of $124 million.
The improved profit grew out of sales that rose a mere 2.5 percent to $4.45 billion from $4.34 billion and reduction in certain cost. The results places the company in a position to be able to commence the payment of dividends that seems likely this year.
Improvement in gross profit margin, was significant and may have resulted in profit margin climbing to 66 percent from 56 percent in the 2018, excluding depreciation cost. Input cost fell with the cessation of imported cement, being a part of the cost mix. Depreciation cost rose 210 percent, to $391 million resulting from the acquisition of Kiln 5 and Mill 5, previously leased from Trinidad Cement. Employee related cost rose just 2 percent to $554 million. Administrative expenses dropped 73 percent to $300 million from $1.1 billion in 2018, a direct result of termination of the kilns. Marketing and sales expenses declined by 7 percent to $169 million. Finance cost climbed in the quarter by 756 percent to $169 million.
CCC Silo
Earnings per share came out at $1.33 for the quarter. IC Insider.com is forecasting earnings of $7 per share for 2019, based on sales increasing faster than in the first quarter. On the low end, the forecast is for earnings not less than $6 per share. At the latest price of $64 for the stock, the PE would 10.6 on the high side and 9.2 times at the lower end. It is worth noting that tax losses amounted to $1.6 billion at the end of 2018. Half of taxable profit can be set off against the tax losses, in any year assessment. The effect is a lowering of the amount of taxes to be charged against profit for the year, as the company did not book deferred tax assets for these losses in the past. Gross cash flow brought in $1.8 billion, but after making loan payment of $1 billion and making some other payments cash at bank on hand, declined to $303 million from $421 million at the end of December last year. Shareholders’ equity stands at $7.5 billion with borrowings at $10.3 billion, down from $11.39 billion at the end of December. Repayment of preference share will consume $822 million in 2019 with $3 billion, payable annually, to September 2026.
The ongoing see saw trading pattern of the Jamaica Stock Exchange continued on Friday with the market indices making sizable gains after a big falls on Thursday.
At the close, the main and US markets had 32 securities traded, compared to 33 on Thursday leading to 14 advancing, 7 declining and 12 closing unchanged. The market closed with the All Jamaican Composite Index 3,765.48 points to 425,884.16 and the JSE Index advanced by 3,419.95 points to 388,005.75.
Market activity on the main market ended with 4,427,445 units valued $384,592,987 changing hands, compared to 17,912,213 units valued $156,798,185 units trading on Thursday. MPC Caribbean Clean Energy led trading with 2.69 million shares, accounting for 61 percent of total main market volume, followed by Carreras with 817,258 units and 18.5 percent of the day’s trades and Wisynco Group with 264,825 units for 6 percent of volume traded.
Market activity ended with an average of 147,582 units valued at $12,819,766, in contrast to 597,074 shares valued at $5,226,606 on Thursday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 158,599 shares at $3,037,176 for each security, compared to 159,231 shares at $2,439,461 previously. Trading for March resulted in an average of 438,501 shares at $9,851,307, for each security traded. IC bid-offer Indicator|The Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator ended with the reading showing 9 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and just 4 closing with lower offers.
In main market activity, Barita Investments fell 90 cents to close at $42, with an exchange of 5,700 shares, Caribbean Cement rose 61 cents to $64.12 with 17,700 shares changing hands, Jamaica Broilers climbed $2 in exchanging 22,080 units to end at $32, Jamaica Producers declined 50 cents to close at $21.50, after trading 38,562 stock units. Jamaica Stock Exchange gained 30 cents and ended at $17.50, trading 97,043 shares, Kingston Wharves jumped $3 to settle at $71, trading 6,989 units, Mayberry Equities rose 60 cents to end trading of 43,242 shares at $9.80, Palace Amusement climbed $50 to close at $1,300 with 100 stock units changing hands. Sagicor Group jumped $4.03 to end at $44 in an exchange of 13,544 shares, Sagicor Real Estate Fund added 44 cents to end at $9.10, trading just 60,018 shares, Seprod rose $1.45 and closed at $43.45, trading 6,934 shares and Stanley Motta gained 33 cents and ended at $4.55, with an exchange of 10,448 shares.
Trading in the US dollar market ended with 83,732 shares trading with a value of US$10,226. Proven Investments closed at 23 US cents, with an exchange of 13,000 shares and Sygnus Credit Investments ended trading of 70,732 units at 10 US cents. The JSE USD Equities Index fell 1.87 points to close at 177.64.
Caribbean Producers traded 1.66 million shares and dropped 80 cents.
The Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange closed with big improvement in volume and value trading on Friday, compared to Thursday’s levels.
The market index dropped 22.54 points to close at 2,970.82 as rising and declining stocks shared the spotlight equally as investors exchanged 24 stocks, compared to 26 on Thursday with prices of 8 rising, 8 declining with 8 remaining unchanged.
Trading resulted in an exchange of 4,264,462 units valued at $16,060,112 as two securities dominated trading volume, compared to 690,056 units valued at $2,672,243 on Thursday. IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 8 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 4 with lower offers.
Trading ended with an average of 177,686 units for $669,171 for each security, in contrast to 26,541 units for an average of $102,779 on Thursday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 91,615 units valued $329,850 and previously, 86,708 units valued $310,507 for each security traded. In contrast, March closed with an average of 195,942 shares valued at $777,498 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, Access Financial closed at $42.55, with 386 shares changing hands, AMG Packaging ended 11 cents higher at $2.23, with 4,206 stock units crossing the exchange, CAC 2000 gained 1 cent to close at $11.25, trading 2,000 shares, Cargo Handlers settled with a loss of 1 cent at $10.95, with an exchange of 3,173 shares. Caribbean Cream ended trading 23,007 shares 2 cents higher at $5.30, Caribbean Producers lost 80 cents to close at $4.20, trading 1,662,213 units, Consolidated Bakeries closed at $1.80, with 4,418 shares changing hands, Derrimon Trading ended with a loss of 1 cent at $2.70, with 3, with an exchange of 23,765 shares. FosRich Group traded 1,500 shares with a loss of 30 cents at $4, Fontana finished trading 107,812 shares with a loss of 5 cents at $3.95, General Accident closed at $4.30, while exchanging 61,634 stock units, GWest Corporation ended 2 cents higher at $1.35, trading 97,288 units, iCreate traded 3,800 shares to close at 90 cents. Indies Pharma finished 9 cents higher at $3.10, with 1,972,125 shares changing hands.Iron Rock exchanged 12,967 shares with a loss of 40 cents in closing at $3.50, Jamaican Teas traded 5,000 units at $3.60, Jetcon Corporation finished the trading of 81,080 shares at $2.40, Knutsford Express closed at $12.50, while trading 600 stock units, Lasco Distributors finished with a loss of 9 cents at $3.51, with 51,500 units changing hands. Lasco Financial settled 5 cents higher at $4.05, with $2.93, with an exchange of 59,528 shares, Lasco Manufacturing ended trading with 60,000 shares, 4 cents higher at $3.20, Main Event traded 8,620 shares after falling 5 cents to $5.80, SSL Venture Capital ended at $1.54, in exchanging 1,640 shares and tTech settled 15 cents higher at $5.15, with 16,200 stock units changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Market activity on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange ended on Friday with trading in 15 securities against 19 on Thursday, with 6 advancing, 3 declining and 6 remaining unchanged.
At close of the market, the Composite Index gained 3.57 points to 1,333.69. The All T&T Index fell 0.89 points to 1,772.20, while the Cross Listed Index gained 1.11 points to close at 120.77.
Trading ended with 188,861 shares at a value of $1,462,541, compared to 374,972 shares at a value of $1,581,389 on Thursday. IC bid-offer Indicator|The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended at 7 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 with lower offers. Stocks ending with gains| At the close of the market, Clico Investments closed with a gain of 7 cents at $22.60, with 5,682 stock units changing hands, First Caribbean International Bank gained 19 cents and completed trading of 2,910 units, at $8.30, JMMB Group gained 3 cents and ended at $1.73, after exchanging 108 shares. NCB Financial Group closed with an increase of 7 cents and settled at $8.35, in exchanging 59,422 shares, Point Lisas ended trading with an increase of 15 cents at $3.60, with 1,805 stock units changing hands and Trinidad & Tobago NGL finished 4 cents higher and completed trading of 6,391 units at $29.45. Stocks closing with losses|Grace Kennedy ended trading 5 cents lower at $3.30, with 250 stock units changing hands, Republic Financial Holdings concluded trading with a loof 1 cent at $120.11, after exchanging 500 shares and Trinidad Cement lost 5 cents and settled at $2.55, trading 2,555 shares. Stocks closing firm|Calypso Macro Index Fund closed trading of 1,338 shares at $15, First Citizens closed at $36.57, after exchanging 2,670 shares, National Flour completed trading at $1.75, with 94,462 units changing hands, One Caribbean Media closed trading at $10.30, after exchanging 475 shares. Sagicor Financial ended market activity at $8.60, after exchanging 253 shares and Unilever Caribbean concluded trading at $26.30, after 10,040 shares crossed the exchange.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Avengers Endgame opens island wide in Jamaica on today (Friday) at all Palace Amusement cinemas and expected to be a blockbuster movie.
Report out of the United States quotes AMC Entertainment as saying, Disney’s Avengers: Endgame will show about 58,000 times this weekend at the company’s theaters to blow away the company’s previous weekend screening record by more than 10,000 showings.
AMC has put approximately 10 million seats on sale between Thursday night’s opening and Sunday night. The Avengers movie set an all-time record for Thursday night box office sales.
“With wildly enthusiastic critic and fan reviews, interest in Avengers: Endgame has continued to grow beyond even the most optimistic projections,” notes AMC.
In Jamaica, the movie that opens today will see patrons paying approximately 8 percent more to watch it and other movies than they would earlier in the month as Palace announced increased prices for movies effective April 26. Palace last increased prices around 4 percent effective July last year.
A fall of $2.3 billion in foreign exchange and investment gains at NCB Financial Group (NCB) was the major factor for a fall in profit in 2019 March quarter to $5 billion from $6.4 billion in the similar period in 2018.
Revenues decline, was not the only area affecting the group’s second quarter performance as a $600 million jump in credit impairment losses and increased depreciation and amortization charge of $430 million, added even more pressure to the results.
For the six months to March, the group reports a net profit of $12.4 billion, down from $13.96 billion in 2018. The 2018 results include a gain of $4.4 billion related to the acquisition of Bermuda based Clarien Group. The amount is partially negated by a gain of $3.3 billion arising from disposal of an associated company JMMB Group, with the amount reflected in the 2019 results. Excluding the one-off transactions the results would have been $9.2 billion for the current period compared to $9.4 billion for the prior year. According to NCB, “we have made significant investments to improve our card system infrastructure, as well as to upgrade our ABM network and core banking system, to enhance and improve overall customer experience.” Segment results were mostly positive with Retail and SME Banking climbing a healthy 25 percent, Payment Services up 20 percent, Corporate Banking jumping a huge 60 percent but Treasury and Corresponding banking was modestly down by just $12 million. Wealth & Investment banking slipped 18 percent but Life Insurance and Pensions jumped 41 percent while General Insurance leaped 155 percent and other fell 152 percent, for a loss $124 million.
The Group’s most critical area of loans and advances, grew 15 percent over 2018, to end at $384 billion, net of provision for credit losses. GHrowth in loans helped to drive net interest income up by 21 percent from $8.36 billion to $10.15 billion in the second quarter, over the similar period in 2018 and for the six months, a rise of 26 percent to $20 million from $15.9 billion. Non-performing loans amounted to $17.7 billion as at March 2019, up from $15 billion at March 2018 and represents 4.5 percent of the gross loans.
Earnings per share $2.04 for the second quarter and $5.07 for the half year. The group declared a dividend of 90 cents payable on May 27. NCB closed trading at $145 on Thursday on the Jamaica Stock Exchange and at TT$8.25 or J$165 on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange.
Market activity on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange ended on Monday in 15 securities trading compared to 15 on Friday, with 5 advancing, 2 declining and 8 remaining unchanged.
Stocks closing with losses| Clico Investments fell 21 cents and ended at $22.39, with 96,320 stock units changing hands and JMMB Group closed with a loss of 3 cents and ended at $1.70, after exchanging 11,000 shares.
Jamaican Teas traded 27,812 units with a loss of 10 cents at $3.50, Jetcon Corporation finished trading of 3,724 shares, with a loss of 5 cents to close at $2.35, Key Insurance closed 10 cents higher at $3.25, with swapping of 2,500 shares. Knutsford Express concluded trading of 338 stock units and rose 49 cents higher to $12.99, Lasco Distributors finished 1 cent higher at $3.52, with 46,495 units changing hands, Lasco Manufacturing ended trading at $3.20, with 6,309 shares, Main Event traded with a loss of 50 cents at $5.30, after trading 12,594 shares. Paramount Trading closed with a loss of 3 cents at $2.47, trading 4,000 units, SSL Venture Capital ended with a loss of 4 cents at $1.50, with 2,185 shares changing hands and Stationery and Office traded 6,000 shares with a loss of 75 cents at $6.75.
440,000 points on the AJI for this rally to be sustained.
trading of 43,242 shares at $9.80, 
to 91,615 units valued $329,850 and previously, 86,708 units valued $310,507 for each security traded. In contrast, March closed with an average of 195,942 shares valued at $777,498 for each security traded.
Iron Rock exchanged 12,967 shares with a loss of 40 cents in closing at $3.50, Jamaican Teas traded 5,000 units at $3.60, Jetcon Corporation finished the trading of 81,080 shares at $2.40, Knutsford Express closed at $12.50, while trading 600 stock units, Lasco Distributors finished with a loss of 9 cents at $3.51, with 51,500 units changing hands. Lasco Financial settled 5 cents higher at $4.05, with $2.93, with an exchange of 59,528 shares, Lasco Manufacturing ended trading with 60,000 shares, 4 cents higher at $3.20, Main Event traded 8,620 shares after falling 5 cents to $5.80, SSL Venture Capital ended at $1.54, in exchanging 1,640 shares and tTech settled 15 cents higher at $5.15, with 16,200 stock units changing hands.
of 1 cent at $120.11, after exchanging 500 shares and Trinidad Cement lost 5 cents and settled at $2.55, trading 2,555 shares.
Avengers Endgame opens island wide in Jamaica on today (Friday) at all 
Wealth & Investment banking slipped 18 percent but Life Insurance and Pensions jumped 41 percent while General Insurance leaped 155 percent and other fell 152 percent, for a loss $124 million.
