IC Insider.com — Page 712

Junior Market trading jumps – Tuesday

August 28, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Indies dominated trading on Tuesday.

Trading volume jumped sharply on the Junior Market, Indies Pharma traded 4,712,727 units or 51.38 percent of trading, followed by Caribbean Producers with 1,769,989 units and accounting for 19.30 percent of the volume traded and Lasco Financial Services with 1,638,268 units representing 17.86 percent of the day’s trade.
Blue Power 10 for 1 stock split took place today, but most investors were unaware as there was attempts to trade the stock at the old price of $47 which falsely push the index up by 557 points which was corrected at the close to reflect a decline.
At the close of the trading session the market index fell 34.25 points to close at 3,205.09, with 28 securities changing hands, down from 24 securities changing hands on Monday.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading had 8 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices, 3 closed with lower offers.
The market closed with the prices of 6 advancing, 6 declining and 16 remaining unchanged and resulting in an exchange of 9,172,835 units valued at $44,109,271, compared to 2,149,308 units valued at $9,485,152 on Monday.
Trading closed with an average of 327,601 units for an average of $1,575,331 in contrast to 89,555 units for an average of $395,215 on Monday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 273,263 units at $1,335,149, compared to 269,588 units at $1,318,905 on the previous trading day. Trading in July, averaged 154,060 units valued at $655,146 for each security traded.
At the close of trading, AMG Packaging ended at $1.95, trading 2,400 stock units, CAC 2000 finished at $9, exchanging 10,797 shares, Cargo Handlers settled with 1,000 shares trading and rose 20 cents to end at $11.20, Caribbean Flavours traded 513,596 stock units and gained $2 to close at a 52 weeks’ high of $18, Caribbean Producers finished trading 1,769,989 units at $6.90. Consolidated Bakeries closed with a loss of 13 cents at $2.37, with 20,388 shares changing hands, Derrimon Trading ended at $25, with 1,400 shares, Dolphin Cove concluded trading of 5,885 shares at $17, Elite Diagnostic finished at $3.10, exchanging 24,500 stock units. Eppley settled at $10.18, with 500 units traded, Everything Fresh fell 1 cent in trading 135,831 shares and ended at $2.20, Express Catering ended trading 49,383 shares at $8, FosRich Group traded 5 cents higher at $3, while exchanging 51,984 shares, General Accident finished trading of 38,206 shares at $3.85. GWest Corporation closed 8 cents higher at $2.18, with 30,000 stock units, Honey Bun ended at $4.50, with juts 340 units trading, Indies Pharma dominated trading with 4,712,727 shares to end unchanged at $2.50, Iron Rock concluded trading of 5,000 shares with a loss of 20 cents at $3.30, Jamaican Teas settled at $3.95, with 5,000 shares. Jetcon Corporation ended trading 84,527 stock units with a loss of 5 cents to end at $4, Knutsford Express closed with a loss of $1 at $11.50, with 5,648 shares changing hands, Lasco Distributors ended with a loss of 1 cent at $3.90, with 7,868 shares, Lasco Financial concluded trading 1,638,268 stock units at $5.60. Lasco Manufacturing finished at $3.86, with 3,935 units, Main Event settled at $7, in trading 30,439 shares, Stationery and Office finished trading 21,349 stock units and gained 20 cents to close at $8.85, and Sweet River closed 16 cents higher at $3.86, with 875 units. In the junior market preference segment, Derrimon Trading ended 2 cents higher at a 52 weeks’ high of $2.52, with 1,000 stock units changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

Filed Under: Feature Stories, JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: AMG Packaging, Blue Power, CAC2000, Cargo Handlers, Caribbean Flavours, Caribbean Producers, Consolidated Bakeries, Daily Trading, Derrimon Trading, Dolphin Cove, Elite Diagnostics, Emerging markets, Eppley, Everything Fresh, Express Catering, FosRich, GWest, Honey Bun, Indies Pharma, Jamaica Stock Exchange, Jamaican Stock, Jamaican Teas, Jetcon Corporation, Knutsford Express, Lasco Distributors, Lasco Financial, Lasco Manufacturing, Main Event, Stationery and Office, Trading Activity

2 TTSE stocks fall 11 trade firm -Tuesday

August 28, 2018 by IC Insider.com

The Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange ended trading on Tuesday with 13 securities changing hands against 9 on Monday, none advanced, 2 declined and 11 remained unchanged.
Market activity resulted a slippage of volume traded to a mere 46,796 shares at a value of just $656,926, compared to 279,181 shares at a value of $3,306,273, previously traded.
At close of the market the, Composite Index the Composite Index lost 1.62 points to 1,243.65, the All T&T Index declined 0.89 points to 1,713.92, while the Cross Listed Index shed 0.33 points to close at 104.04.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading closed with 2 stocks ending with higher bids than the last selling prices and 6 with lower offers.
Stocks closing with losses| One Caribbean Media shares fell 11 cents and concluded trading at $12.18, after exchanging 2,039 shares and West Indian Tobacco closed with a loss of 54 cents and completed trading at $88 with 946 units
Stocks trading with no price change| Angostura Holdings ended at $15.75, with 2,386 stock units changing hands, Clico Investments ended at $20, with 2,037 stock units changing hands, First Citizens settled at $34.91, after exchanging 899 shares, Guardian Holdings completed trading at $17, with 146 units, JMMB Group traded down to $1.70 but concluded trading at $1.78, after exchanging 28,516 shares, Massy Holdings concluded at $47, after exchanging 2,085 shares, Republic Financial Holdings concluded at $103.50, after exchanging 1,580 shares, Sagicor Financial ended at $7.75, with 546 stock units changing hands, Scotiabank completed trading at $65, with 325 units, Trinidad & Tobago NGL settled at $30, after exchanging 3,031 shares and Trinidad Cement concluded at $2.90, after exchanging 2,000 shares
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

Filed Under: Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: Angostura Holdings, Clico Investments, Daily Trading, Emerging markets, Emerging Stock, First Citizens, Grace Kennedy, Guardian Holdings, JMMB Group, Massy Holdings, NCB Financial Group, One Caribbean Media, Republic Financial Holdings, Sagicor Financial, Scotiabank, Trading Activity, Trinidad & Tobago NGL, Trinidad Cement, TTSE, West Indian Tobacco

NCB on high watch alert

August 28, 2018 by IC Insider.com

The stock worth watching this week is NCB Financial Group that jumped last week to $110, a price last seen last year November. With limited supply for sale and the year-end approaching, this stock seems set for $150 by early 2019, if not before.
NCB Financial Group recorded net profit of $20.9 billion for the nine months ended June, with profit attributable to stockholders of $20.7 billion, for an increase of 40 percent over the prior year. The figure includes one off gains of $4.4 billion from acquisition of a subsidiary. Importantly, third quarter profits rose a strong 30 percent to $6.8 billion over the 2017 quarter.
Grace Kennedy is another of the main market stocks to keep an eye on as it slowly tries to move higher. The price of Caribbean Cement has been seesawing between $45 and $52, but in a bull market one never knows when the break will come. Kingston Wharves close with the bid at $61 to but 58,300 shares and last traded at $53. In the Junior market, Indies Pharma continues to scale new highs with strong demand existing for the stock. General Accident could move higher as more demand comes in for it, with limited selling.
Caribbean Producers has been trading well with an upward bias and could continue in this vein until full year’s results are released. Caribbean Flavours seems to be following it parent, Derrimon Trading and continues to rise on limited selling volume. Medical Disposable sold down during the past week and could recover in the coming days.
Regardless of what happens to individual stocks, there is little doubt that the summer rally is on for Jamaica stocks and is being helped by some good results for a number of the companies. The rally is expected to continue until year end barring any major negative development.

Kingston Wharves stock price sets to hit $61

Stocks with scarce supplies that could spring surprises include, Barita Investments, Grace Kennedy, NCB Financial, Berger Paints, Caribbean Cement, Kingston Wharves, PanJam Investment, Sagicor Group, Salada Foods, Seprod and Scotia Group. The main market is not the only segment with limited supplies. The Junior Market supplies continue to be limited for many of the listings. The list includes, Blue Power, Caribbean Flavours, Cargo Handlers, Caribbean Producers, Derrimon Trading, Express Catering, General Accident, Caribbean Cream, Medical Disposables, Stationery and Office Supplies and tTech.
An overall view of stocks indicates that the main market continues to be steered higher by an upward sloping support line as well the 45 and 125 day moving averages, lending support just below. The Junior Market now at a 15 months’ high, is being steered by an upward rising long-term support line and a golden cross. The golden cross is a very strong bullish long-term signal.

Filed Under: Stock Market, Stocks to watch Tagged With: Barita Investments, Berger Paints, Caribbean Flavours, Caribbean Producers, Daily Trading, Emerging markets, General Accident, Grace Kennedy, Jamaican Stock Exchange, Jamaican stocks, junior market, Medical Disposable, Medical Disposables, Proven Investments, Stationery and Office, Stocks to Watch, TOP 10 stocks, Trading Activity

All Jamaica jumps 6,070 points to record 356,437

August 28, 2018 by IC Insider.com

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The Jamaica Stock Exchange surged sharply in early trading on Tuesday, with the All Jamaican Composite Index jumping 6,070.62 to an intraday high 356,437.50, after just 17 minutes of trading.
At the same time, the JSE Index jumped 5,531.02 points to a record 324,754.83. Strong gains by Kingston Wharves that traded at $61 up from $53 when it traded previously, NCB Financial that rose by $1 and and Seprod that jumped from $45 to $50 were the main contributors to the gain.
The Junior Market index is showing a huge increase of 557.73 points to 3,797.07 is caused by Blue Power having split into 10 units with the adjusted price being $4.70 but trades were attempted at $47 thus distorting the index. Those trades will be cancelled at the close of the day.

Filed Under: Breaking News, JSE Combined, Stock Market Tagged With: Blue Power, Daily Trading, Emerging markets, Jamaica Stock Exchange, Kingston Wharves, NCB Financial Group, Seprod, Trading Activity

BOJ pumped US$65M in FX market last week

August 27, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) scheduled B-Fxitt auction last week saw 43 bids seeking to purchase US$39.9 million but only $15 million was on offer, leaving a large amount of unsatisfied demand.
Only 17 bids succeeded in getting a portion of the funds offered for sale, but then not every bid really wanted the funds. The bids left the average rate at $138.19, with $137.90 being the lowest rate that succeeded. The lowest fully successful bid was $137.97 for US$1 million. The lowest bid received was $131.10 to purchase US$1.5 million.
On Friday, BOJ offered US$40 million in what they called a flash intervention tool. On Friday August 31, last year BOJ also had a flash intervention sales that pushed the amount of buying in the foreign exchange market on that day to US$76 million. BOJ sold US$5m on the Wednesday of that week.
The flash intervention this past week, was clearly to satisfy the unmet demand from Wednesday’s auction, 42 bids were presented amounting to US$76.9 million leaving U$26.9 million of unmet demand. The average rate declined to $137.49, with the lowest accepted bid price being $136.65 and the highest being $138.70. The lowest bid that was fully allocated was US$8 million at $137.00. Bids came in as low as $129. The lowest bid that had some success was $136.65, and this compares with $137.90 on Wednesday, suggesting that those bids that did not succeed included a large amount of low bids made to satisfy the requirement that all dealers must put in a bid. On Wednesday, this week

BOJ sold US$65M into the FX market last week.

BOJ will be carrying out their usual auction at which US$15 million will be made available, to be followed by US$10 million each, on September 5 and 12.
On Thursday, dealers bought US$33.9 million at $136.37 and sold US$35.3 at $137.96, up from a rate of $137.48 on Wednesday. On Friday, US$73.2 million was purchased by dealers at $136.75 and they sold US$46.2 million at $137.90. On Monday dealers bought US$45.5 million at $136 and sold US$50.3 million at $137.52, a fall from Friday’s Average rate.

Filed Under: Economy, Feature Stories, FX Market Tagged With: Bank Of Jamaica, BOJ, Emerging markets, FX Market, US Dollar

JSE main market slips in moderate trading

August 27, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Temperature on the Jamaica Stock Exchange was far more subdued in trading on Monday with both volume and value pulling sharply from Friday’s levels and leaving the two major indices down at the close.
Trading activity closed, with the All Jamaican Composite Index declining 704.13 points to 350,366.88 and the JSE Index falling 641.55 points to end at 319,223.81.
Strong gains by Caribbean Cement, JMMB Group, NCB Financial and Seprod overwhelmed declines in Grace Kennedy, Sagicor Real Estate Fund and Supreme Ventures to help propel the Indices to new highs.
Market activities resulted in 25 securities trading including 1 in the US dollar market compared to 31 securities trading on Friday.
At the end of trading, the prices of 9 stocks rose, 12 declined and 4 closed trading unchanged. Stanley Motta closed with 2,211 units changing hands after falling 5 cents to close at an all-time low of $4.95.
Trading in the main market ended with 1,995,601 units valued $33,005,256 versus 3,900,466 units valued $77,632,786 on Friday.
The day’s volume was led by, JMMB Group 7.5% preference share with 456,103 shares accounting for 22.86 percent of the volume traded, followed by Wisynco Group with 349,103 units and 17.5 percent of the day’s volume and Carreras with 248,928 units and 12.5 percent of the main market volume.
Trading resulted in an average of 83,150 units valued at over $1,375,219, in contrast to 139,302 shares valued at $2,772,600 on Friday. For the month to date an average of 224,098 shares valued at an average of $4,076,157 versus 231,683 shares valued at an average of $4,230,129 on Friday. July closed with an average of 169,022 units valued at $3,514,756, for each security traded.
Stocks with major price changes| Caribbean Cement fell 50 cents and finished at $47 trading 14,929 shares, Grace Kennedy ended trading 193,538 shares at $58.01, after falling 49 cents, Jamaica Producers rose 70 cents and finished trading 43,354 units at $18, Mayberry Investments fell 95 cents to settle at $7.05, in exchanging 6,993 shares. NCB Financial Group fell $1 and ended trading 12,713 shares at $109, Sagicor Group gained 40 cents and settled at $38.05, trading 6,713 stock units. Sagicor Real Estate Fund climbed $1 and closed at $12 exchanging 23,171 shares, Salada Foods gained 50 cents and ended trading 19,300 stock units at $18, Scotia Group traded 101,372 units at and closed $52.50, after adding 50 cents and Supreme Ventures lost 50 cents and ended at $15, in the trading of 17,810 shares.
Trading in the US dollar market closed with Proven Investments trading 17,810 shares valued US$3,943 and rose 1 cent to close at 23 US cents. The JSE USD Equities Index gained 3.05 points to close at 169.08.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 7 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 closing with lower offers.

Filed Under: Feature Stories, JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Caribbean Cement, Daily Trading, Emerging markets, Grace Kennedy, Jamaica Producers, Jamaica Stock Exchange, Jamaican stocks, JMMB Group, NCB Financial, Proven Investments, Sagicor Group, Sagicor Real Estate Fund, Salada Foods, Scotia Group, Supreme Ventures, Trading Activity, Wisynco Group

Big jump for Junior Market index – Monday

August 27, 2018 by IC Insider.com

The Junior Market, put in a strong showing in Monday’s trading session and closed with the market index jumping 46.92 points to close at 3,239.34, with 24 securities changing hands, down from 26 securities changing hands on Friday.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading had 3 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices, 2 closed with lower offers.
The market closed with the prices of 11 advancing, 6 declining and 7 remaining unchanged and resulting in an exchange of 2,149,308 units valued at $9,485,152, compared to 15,120,642 units valued at $55,182,607 on Friday.
Trading closed with an average of 89,555 units for an average of $395,215 in contrast to 687,302 units for an average of $2,508,300 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 269,588 units at $1,318,905, compared to 280,667 units at $1,375,747 on the previous trading day. Trading in July, averaged 154,060 units valued at $655,146 for each security traded.
At the close of trading, Access Financial closed trading of 19,338 shares at $45, AMG Packaging rose 5 cents to close at $1.95, trading 3,424 stock units, Blue Power concluded trading of 9,672 units at $47, Caribbean Flavours traded 710 stock units at $16, Caribbean Producers finished trading of 60,350 units 11 cents higher to $6.90. Derrimon Trading ended $4 higher at $25, exchanging 18,909 shares, Dolphin Cove concluded trading at $17, with 1,100 shares being exchanged, Elite Diagnostic gained 10 cents to end at $3.10, with 26,004 stock units changing hands, Eppley settled at $10.18, trading 7,800 units. Everything Fresh gained just 1 cent in trading 65,426 shares and ended at $2.21, Express Catering ended trading 22,033 shares and lost 30 cents to end at $8, FosRich Group traded 50,000 shares with a loss of 5 cents at $2.95, General Accident finished trading 185,258 shares and rose 5 cents to $3.85, GWest Corporation closed 10 cents higher at $2.10, in exchanging 30,756 stock units. Indies Pharma pulled back 4 cents in trading 539,221 shares to end at $2.50, Jamaican Teas settled with a loss of 30 cents at $3.95, trading 9,000 shares, Jetcon Corporation rose 4 cents to $4.05, in trading 42,069 stock units, KLE Group finished trading of 6,200 shares at $3, Lasco Distributors ended 6 cents higher at $3.91, with 12,000 shares changing hands. Lasco Financial concluded trading of 4,783 stock units and lost 30 cents to end at $5.60, Lasco Manufacturing finished 1 cent higher at $3.86, with 1,013,663 units changing hands, Main Event settled at $7, exchanging 9,692 shares, Stationery and Office finished trading 2,000 stock units and rose 5 cents to $8.65 and tTech ended with a loss of 43 cents at $5.07, with 9,900 shares changing hands.

Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

Filed Under: Feature Stories, JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Access Financial, AMG Packaging, Blue Power, Caribbean Flavours, Caribbean Producers, Daily Trading, Derrimon Trading, Dolphin Cove, Elite Diagnostics, Emerging markets, Eppley, Everything Fresh, Express Catering, FosRich, GWest, Indies Pharma, Jamaica Stock Exchange, Jamaican Stock, Jamaican Teas, Jetcon Corporation, Lasco Distributors, Lasco Financial, Lasco Manufacturing, Main Event, Stationery and Office, Trading Activity, tTech

1 TTSE stock rise 2 fall -Monday

August 27, 2018 by IC Insider.com

The Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange ended trading on Monday with 9 securities changing hands against 14 on Friday, 1 advanced, 2 declined and 6 remained unchanged.
Market activity resulted a slippage of volume traded to 279,181 shares at a value of $3,306,273, compared to 169,268 shares valued $11,763,279.
At close of the market the, Composite Index the Composite Index lost 0.15 points to end at 1,245.27, the All T&T Index gained 1.71 points to close at 1,714.81, while the Cross Listed Index shed 0.28 points to close at 104.37.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading closed with 3 stocks ending with higher bids than the last selling prices and 3 with lower offers.
Stocks closing with gains| Guardian Holdings gained 40 cents and completed trading of 65,993 shares at $17.
Stocks closing with losses| Grace Kennedy closed with a loss of 10 cents at $2.80, with 150,000 stock units changing hands and Trinidad & Tobago NGL shed 1 cent and settled at $30, after exchanging 38,368 shares.
Stocks trading with no price change| Clico Investmentsended market activity at $20, with 5,000 stock units changing hands, First Citizens settled at $34.91, after exchanging 13,062 shares, JMMB Group concluded trading at $1.78, after exchanging 4,125 shares, Point Lisas closed at $3.70, with 107 stock units changing hands, Sagicor Financial traded 2,026 shares and ended at $7.75 and Scotiabank completed trading 500 shares at $65.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

Filed Under: Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: Clico Investments, Daily Trading, Emerging markets, Emerging Stock, First Citizens, Grace Kennedy, Guardian Holdings, JMMB Group, Point Lisas, Sagicor Financial, Scotiabank, Trading Activity, Trinidad & Tobago NGL, TTSE

Just 1 new addition to IC TOP 10

August 27, 2018 by IC Insider.com

The bullishness continued on Jamaica Stock Exchange, driving the main market to more record highs and hitting more than 352,000 points on Friday, while the Junior Market traded at a 15 months’ high.
Half year earnings season is almost over with only Jamaica Broilers and Scotia Group left to report for the main market. Some results were excellent and most were okay, confirming what was already telegraphed to investors by earlier results. Regardless, with interest rates now under 2 percent for short term government and the central bank’s instruments, the bull market is clearly on. The chronic shortage of many of the stocks continue to put upward pressure on prices and moving the PE ratios higher as well.
Medical Disposables is the only new addition this week, to the TOP 10 coming at the expenses of FosRich Group as the price of the former, dropped to $5.10 from $6.40 at the end of the past week. General Accident has been at the top of the Junior Market list for a long time, enjoyed a bounce in the price to $3.80 by the end of the week, helped by half year results that showed profit rising from $8 million in 2017 to $95 million in the half year, with the quarter up from a loss of $9 million to a profit of $66 after tax. IC Insider.com also down graded earnings for the full year to 45 cents per share and the stock now sits at 6th spot in the list. The PE is just 8.4 and will go higher.
The PE ratio for Junior Market Top stocks averages 8.4 up from 7.9 last week, as the market continues to revalue the multiple higher. The latest valuation compares to an average PE for the overall market of 13, based on 2018 estimated earnings.The main market PE is now 8 for the top stocks, compared to a market average of 13.5, a good indicator of the level of undervaluation of these stocks. Work done by IC Insider.com suggests that the PE ratio is likely to end 2018 around 16 or 17 times earnings, as investors continue to gradually upgrade the multiple they are prepared to pay for stocks, which would lift prices sharply over the next several months from current levels. In addition, the latest Treasury bill offer saw rates dropping to 1.7 percent on the 91 days instrument and 1.88 percent on the 182 days instrument. These rates suggest more funds will be going into stocks as liquidity remains high.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at an average discount of 35 percent to the average for the Junior Market Top stocks but it’s a third of what the average PE for the year is likely to be of 20 times earnings and main market stocks traded at a discount of 40 percent to the market.
TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns within a 12 months period. Stocks are selected based on projected earnings for each company’s current fiscal year. Based on an assumed PE for each, the likely gains are determined and then ranked, with the stocks with the highest potential gains ranked first followed by the rest, in descending order. Potential values will change as stock prices fluctuate and will result in movements of the selection in and out of the lists for most weeks. Earnings per share are revised on an ongoing basis based on new information received that can result in changes in and out of the list as well.

Filed Under: Buy Rated, Stock Market, Stocks to watch Tagged With: AMG Packaging, Barita Investments, Berger Paints, Caribbean Producers, Daily Trading, Elite Diagnostic, Emerging markets, General Accident, Jamaican Stock Exchange, Jamaican stocks, junior market, Stationery and Office, Stocks to Watch, TOP 10 stocks, Trading Activity

Grace performance slips in Q2

August 26, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Grace Kennedy HQ

Grace Kennedy reported revenues of $48.4 billion, an increase of 4.3 percent or $2 billion over the corresponding period of 2017 for the half year to June, “driven largely by growth in its Food Trading and Insurance segments.” Don Wehby stated in a release following the release of the interim results.
Net profit for the period was $2.5 billion, an increase of $266 million or 12.2 percent compared with 2017. After minority interest net profit rose by 14 percent to $2.15 billion but by just 9 percent in the second quarter to $959 million from $881 million in 2017.
Second quarter sales revenue grew just 3.85 percent to $22.44 billion, a slower pace than the first quarter’s 6 percent. Other income rose a strong 60 percent to $718 million in the quarter over the prior year, and 61 percent for the half year, to $1.45 billion. Interest income was slightly down to $1.13 billion and $2.25 billion in the quarter and half year period respectively, over the similar periods in 2017.
Total comprehensive income a better measure of managements stewardship, more than doubled in the second quarter to $1.338 billion from $625 million in 2017 but slipped slightly to $2.39 billion for the half year.
The Group reported that its Food Trading segment experienced growth in revenue and pre-tax profits over the corresponding period of 2017. This was due to improved performance in the domestic foods business as the local economy picks up and now showing stronger growth. While showing an increase in revenue over prior year, the Company’s international foods business experienced a decline in pre-tax profits compared to the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to the performance of Grace Foods UK.

Grace Kennedy products

Financial Group experienced mixed fortunes during the period, as the Money Services and Banking and Investments segments both experienced decline in revenue and pre-tax profits, while the Insurance segment grew revenue and pre-tax profits over the corresponding period of 2017. The performance of the Money Services segment was due to a reduction in transaction volumes in the remittance business in Jamaica stemming from the implementation of enhanced compliance measures.
Grace’s financial position remains strong with Shareholders equities of $46.35 billion and the company’s stock traded at $58.50 on Friday with a PE of 11 based on IC Insider.com’s earnings estimate for 2018 of $5.40. The PE is lower than the market’s average of 13.5 and with IC Insider.com forecasting average PE to reach 17 by late this year or early next year, the stock has room for growth.
Grace approved the payment of an interim dividend of 45 cents per stock unit, payable on September 26, an increase of 18 percent from the 38 cents per stock unit paid to stockholders in September last year. Group CFO Frank James said, “This brings the dividends declared to date to approximately $844 million, an increase of 25 percent or $169 million over the corresponding period in 2017.”