The main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange suffered moderate losses in the main indices with just over 30 points drop at the close on Thursday as advancing stocks out-paced decliners.
At the close, the All Jamaican Composite Index lost just 38.40 points to close at 337,480.52 and the JSE Index fell a mere 34.99 points to close at 307,482.85.
Trading in the main market ended with 12,872,984 units valued at $191,208,699 compared to 12,872,984 units valued at $191,208,699 on Wednesday.
Market activities resulted in 26 securities trading including 3 in the US dollar market compared to 26 securities trading on Wednesday. At the end of trading, the prices of 11 stocks advanced, 13 declined and 7 closed unchanged.
NCB Financial released third quarter results to June, after the market closed, with net profit attributable to stockholders increasing 40 percent to $20.7 billion, from $5.9 billion in the prior year’s nine months period. The group recorded $4.4 billion in one off gains from the acquisition of the majority shares in Clarien bank in Bermuda.
The day’s volume was led by, PanJam Investment that closed at $52.65, with 2,20,403 stock units, Radio Jamaica with 1,082,403 shares, JMMB Group 7.5% preference share trading 943,000 units, Carreras with 791,670 units and Berger Paints with 600,602 shares.
Stocks with major price changes are, Berger Paints with 600,602 shares changing hands with the price gaining 68 cents to $19.50 Caribbean Cement dropped 99 cents in trading 11,500 shares at $40.01, Carreras with 791,670 units but fell 50 cents to $9, Grace Kennedy lost 93 cents to $52.07, with just 6,600 stock units trading, Jamaica Stock Exchange shed 49 cents and closed trading at $7.50 trading 6,857 shares. JMMB Group 59,948 shares but fell $1.49 to $28.51, Kingston Wharves jumped $2.09 to $52.99 in trading 10,715 units. NCB Financial Group rose 50 cents and ended trading with 17,389 shares at $97, Sagicor Group settled at $38.99, after rising 49 cents in trading 31,626 shares, Sterling Investments rose 98 cents and end at $11.50, with 1,141 units and Supreme Ventures ended at $16, after gaining 90 cents in trading 26,089 shares.
Trading in the US dollar market closed with 328,462 units valued at US$40,221 as Margaritaville rose 0.10 cent and ended at 16.90 US cents with 900 shares and Productivity Business ended trading 6 cents lower to 50 cents with 541 shares, Proven Investments lost 1.09 cents to 17.01 US cents with 72,171 shares trading and Sygnus Credit Investments closed with 254,850 units trading with a decline of 1.5 cents to 10.50 US cents. The JSE USD Equities Index fell 9 points to 142.29.
Trading resulted in an average of 252,649 units valued at an average of $5,757,925 compared to 559,695 units valued at an average of $8,313,422 for each security traded on Wednesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts 170,611 units valued at $3,337,283 compared to 165,957 units valued at $3,192,366 on Wednesday. June closed with an average of 250,168 shares with a value of $5,895,281, for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 10 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 closing with lower offers.
5 TTSE stocks fall 1 rise
Trading remained moderate on Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange, on Thursday with less volume and value that on Wednesday leading to modest decline in the market indices.
At the close the Composite Index lost 0.03 points to 1,217.98, the All T&T Index declined 0.07 points to 1,708.97 and the Cross Listed Index ended unchanged at 97.63.
Market activity ended on Thursday with 14 securities trading against 15 on Wednesday, with just 1 advancing, 5 declining and 8 remaining unchanged. The volume traded declined from Wednesday’s level to 149,502 units valued $7,746,067, compared to 263,410 units valued $10,262,782 on Wednesday.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows market sentiment with 5 stocks ending with higher bids than the last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
Gains| West Indian Tobacco concluded trading and rose 1 cent to close at $87.01, with 4,086 units changing hands.
Losses| Angostura Holdings ended trading 1 cent lower at $15.74, with 6,460 stock units changing hands, Clico Investments concluded trading with a loss of 6 cents and ended at $19.94, after 29,390 stock units changed hands, Guardian Holdings fell 1 cent and completed trading at $16.60, with 1,723 units, Prestige Holdings declined 1 cent and completed trading at $10, in exchanging 1,000 units and Trinidad & Tobago NGL fell 1 cent and settled at $29.74, after exchanging 66 shares.
Firm Trades| Agostini’s concluded market activity at $21.11, after exchanging 396 shares, Calypso Macro Index Fund traded 740 units at $16, First Citizens settled at $34.91 exchanging 1,247 shares, JMMB Group concluded trading 2,094 shares at $1.84, One Caribbean Media closed at $12.10, after exchanging 1,400 shares, Republic Financial Holdings traded 532 shares at $102.81, Scotiabank completed trading 100,300 units at $65.02 and Trinidad Cement ended trading at $2.90, after exchanging 68 shares.
changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Jamaican dollar gains
Dealers in the foreign market bought US$36.76 million in US currency at an average rate of J$132.05, down $1.24 from Tuesday’s rate of $133.29.
The selling rate for the US dollar declined from J$134.05 on Tuesday as US$50.77 million was sold at an average rate of J$133.60 including US$5 million sold to Bank of Jamaica in the B-FXITT Standard Intervention Tool – buy operation, at an average J$133.65. At mid-day on Wednesday the average selling rate was $133.49 with only US$12.3 million then sold.
Overall foreign currencies purchased by dealers amounted to US$41.44 million, while selling accounted for $58 million for a net outflow of just under US$17 million. On Tuesday, net inflows of US$14 million came into the market, but for the US dollar currency, net inflows amounted to US$17 million.
For the next four weeks, the central bank will buy US$5 on Wednesday July 31 and August 8 and will sell $10 million to the market on August 19.
TTSE flashing negative signals
Ansa Mcal dropped $3 in trading a mere 200 units to close back at a recent 52 weeks’ low of $55, reached on June 11 and helped to spark a sharp decline in the two main market indices of Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange, on Wednesday.
The signals from a number of stocks suggest that a downward bias is present as a number of prices have moved down to test recent 52 weeks’ lows. This is a development worth watching going forward for a while.
At the close the Composite Index lost 5.79 points to 1,218.01, the All T&T Index declined 10.93 points to 1,709.04 and the Cross Listed Index fell 0.07 points to close at 97.63.
Market activity ended on Wednesday with 15 securities trading against 13 on Tuesday, with 5 advancing, 6 declining and 4 remaining unchanged. The volume traded declined from Tuesday’s level but the value more than doubled as 263,410 units valued $10,262,782 changed hands compared to 704,242 units valued $4,324,693 on Tuesday.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows market sentiment with 2 stocks ending with higher bids than the last selling prices and 3 with lower offers.
Gains| In trading on Wednesday, Guardian Holdings gained 1 cent and closed at $16.61, trading 400 units, LJ Williams B share rose 1 cent and ended at 70 cents, after exchanging 13,295 shares, Republic Financial Holdings closed with a gain of 1 cent and completed trading at a 52 weeks’ high of $102.81, after exchanging 2,120 shares, Scotiabank gained 1 cent and ended trading 100,600 units at $65.02 and Trinidad & Tobago NGL finished trading with a rise of 15 cents and ended at $29.75, after exchanging 63,510 shares.
Losses| Clico Investments lost 20 cents and settled at $20, with 72,130 stock units changing hands, First Citizens ended trading 1 cent lower at $34.91, after exchanging 598 shares, National Enterprises concluded trading of 1,000 stock units with a loss of 5 cents and settled at $9.50, in testing the 52 weeks’ low reached June 13 of $9.49. National Flour traded 50 shares and fell 1 cent to $1.79 and Sagicor Financial fell 5 cents and settled at $7.70, to test the 52 weeks’ low for the third time in weeks, with 2,277 stock units changing hands.
Firm Trades| Ansa Merchant ended at $40, after exchanging 1,394 shares, Massy Holdings completed trading at $46.95, after exchanging 409 shares, but traded earlier at an intraday 52 weeks’ low of $46.93, One Caribbean Media completed trading at $12.10, after exchanging 328 shares and Point Lisas settled at $3.70, with 5,099 stock units changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Motta shares fully allocated
According to a release from the brokers to the deal, the offer of reserve shares and those the general public were full allocated.
The Company intends to apply to the Jamaica Stock Exchange for the listing on the main market of the JSE of all the Shares and to make such application as soon as is conveniently possible following the close of the offer. The offer opened on July 6 and was scheduled to close on July 20, but an notice in Friday the 20th in the Daily Gleaner, disclosed that the issue was closed suggesting that the issue was fully taken up with minimal take up by the NCB Capital Markets as underwriters.
The offer covered 757 million shares with 227,348,547 reserved mostly for family members of the majority shareholders of the Musson Group and 529,970,315 units for the General Public for purchase at $5.31 per share, meant to raise $4 billion.
BOJ buys $5m at J$133.65
The rate Bank of Jamaica paid on Wednesday, July 25 to purchase US$5 million in the B-FXITT Standard Intervention Tool – buy operation average J$133.65.
Eligible dealers placed bids to buy only $5.5 million with the highest priced offer at 137.24 to sell $200,000 and the lowest at $126 for $200,000. BOJ purchased funds as high as $137.10 amounting 40 percent of the amount offered while the amount of $350,000 that was offered at $137 was fully taken up. Eligible Offers were received from 19 sellers while 18 had funds bought.
The central bank will buy US$5 on Wednesday July 31 and August 8 and will sell $10 million to the market on August 19.
Banks love Turks & Caicos most
Turks & Caicos Islands is the destination by far, that banks and non-banks are most bullish about, according to data disclosed by the KPMG Carib Tourism 2018 survey.
Following Turks & Caicos, the financiers were bullish on Cayman Islands, then Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda with Bermuda in fifth spot.
“When we looked at which destination in the Caribbean financiers are most bullish about there were 16 different destinations put forward of which only 7 were nominated by both bank and non-banks,” KPMG said. KPMG went on to state,”this further corroborates the position seen in recent years that the financing landscape has changed and that the new landscape involves financiers favoring a small number of jurisdictions for whatever reason rather than financing projects across the entire region”
The survey stated that airlift was the number one factor that considered important followed by ability to recover for hurricanes speedily.
“For banks the second most important issues were the ability to recover from hurricanes (88 percent) and outdated infrastructure (88 percent). Non-banks were unanimous (100 percent) in terms of the importance of crime and the ability to recover from hurricanes.”
Strong appetite for funding hotels
KPMG 2018 Caribbean Tourism survey findings showed a strong appetite by financing new and existing tourism related projects within the Caribbean region.
The findings stated that, “one of the most positive set of results the was in response to a question as to what appetite financiers had for issuing senior debt for different types of tourism related projects in the Caribbean.”
Nearly 90 percent of banks and all nonbank respondents said they had a positive appetite for issuing senior debt to existing hotels for refinancing, expansion and renovation. Approximately 86 percent of non-banks had a positive attitude towards financing acquisitions as did 67 percent of non-banks. Not surprisingly, new builds were a more difficult category to register a positive attitude but 33 percent of banks and 43 percent of non-banks had a positive appetite for new builds. “These are really high percentages, particularly for financing existing hotels and acquisitions. Whereas previously financing applications for new builds were almost dismissed entirely, a sufficient critical mass of financiers are now willing to consider such applications,” KPMG team stated.