Scotia Group reported a 19 percent rise in half profit to $6.76 billion after tax, but that clouds the fall in profit for the second quarter to April that fell marginally thanks to a big jump in loan provisioning of $560 million compared to a small recovery of $6 million in the January quarter.
The half year earnings are bolstered by a gain on sale of subsidiary of $753 million.
Shareholders don’t have much to cheer about except that loan losses are within the range of that of 2017 along with a few other good developments. Net interest income fell to $6.2 billion from $6.5 billion in April 2017 quarter, Insurance revenues fell from $1.1 billion to $707 million. Cost were contained well, with salaries and benefits declining from $2.84 billion in 2017 to $2,46 billion in the April quarter while other operating costs, rose marginally from $1.76 billion to $1.86 billion.
Year to date, net interest income moved from 13.17 billion to $12.82 billion while loan impairment fell sharply from $975 million to $564 million. Net fee income declined from $4.4 billion to $4.1, but gains from foreign exchange trading activities delivered $1.66 billion versus $1.1 billion in 2017. While the half year figures show a bit of positive signs, investors should be focused on more recent developments, as these are more likely to point the way forward.
The group made modest progress in increasing loans, the most important asset for a bank. At the end of April, loans grew to $171 billion from $166.5 billion at the end of 2017 fiscal year, the increase is twice the growth rate between April last year and the year end. Investment securities rose from $120 billion at the end of October in 2017 to $131.6 billion and cash resources from $116.5 billion to $126.2 billion, at a much faster pace than increased in lending. Deposits by the public moved from $260.6 billion to $383 billion.
David Noel new Scotia Group’s CEO.
Scotia ended with earnings per share of $1.08 for the quarter and $2.17 for the half year, including the one-off capital gains from sale of the former subsidiary. A dividend of 48 cents per share was declared by the board, payable on July 18.
The strongest positive for the group is that they currently lend out just about 52 percent of deposited funds by its customers, leaving much room to grow loans whenever that time comes around.
The stock traded on the Jamaica Stock Exchange and closed at $53 but with these results, further movement up is going to be very challenging in the short term and leaves NCB Financial as the banking group of choice for investors seeking growth in stock price.
The 
The main trades were, 
In contrast to 182,690 units for an average of $3,932,069 on Wednesday. For the month to date 217,527 units traded with an average value of $6,588,540 and on the previous day 158,650 units valued at 3,992,107 on average. May closed with an average of 589,414 shares with a value of $16,532.367, for each security traded.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange main market is currently trading in record territory with the all Jamaica Composite index having surpassed the 334,000 mark around mid day, moved to more than 335,000 points just ahead of the close.
CAC 2000 finished with a loss of 50 cents at $8, with 100 shares, Caribbean Cream rose 4 cents to close at $5.10, with 13,840 shares, Caribbean Producers finished trading with a loss of 20 cents at $5.05, in exchanging 25,000 units. C2W Music ended at 45 cents, with 25,000 shares traded, Elite Diagnostic settled at $3.13, with 48,467 units, Eppley ended trading $1.04 higher at $9.18, with 1,700 shares, Express Catering traded at $7.80, with 2,453,192 shares. FosRich Group gained 5 cents to $2.75, with 41,869 shares, General Accident closed with a loss of 15 cents at $3.15, after 32,000 stock units changed hands, Honey Bun concluded trading 40 cents higher at $5, with 42,404 shares, Jamaican Teas rose 10 cents to $5, with 124,213 stock units. Jetcon Corporation traded 6 cents higher at $4.06, with 140,299 units, 
Key Insurance traded 7,947 shares and rose 21 cents to $3.50, KLE Group closed with a loss of 14 cents at $2.86, in exchanging 2,000 shares, Knutsford Express dropped $2.25 to $11.50, with 1,790,027 shares changing hands. Lasco Distributors added 10 cents in trading 1,978 stock units at $4.10, Lasco Financial finished with a loss of 2 cents at $5.10, trading 1,263,476 units, Lasco Manufacturing settled 30 cents higher at $4.20, with 700,000 shares, Main Event climbed 65 cents higher to $8, with 93,893 shares. Paramount Trading finished trading at $3, with 1,498 stock units, Stationery and Office closed with a loss of 6 cents at $8, after 26,634 units changed hands and tTech concluded trading 35 cents higher at $6.10, with 715 shares. In the junior market preference segment, Eppley 8.75% settled at $6, with 561,575 shares changing hands.
Market activity on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange ended on Wednesday with 13 securities trading against 11 on Tuesday, with 2 advancing, 3 declining and 8 remaining unchanged. 
Losses| First Citizens ended trading 9 cents lower and concluded at $34.90, after exchanging 2,894 shares, JMMB Group concluded trading with a loss of 2 cents and ended at $1.87, with 2,000 stock units changing hands and Massy Holdings traded with a loss of 34 cents and ended at $47.15, with 745 stock units changing hands.
The Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange enjoyed two days of major index moves as express catering moved to two record closing on Monday and Tuesday and broke a one year downtrend. 
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 5 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 with lower offers.
GWest Corporation ended 19 cents higher at $2.30, with 1,945 units, Honey Bun concluded trading with 174,441 shares and lost 20 cents to end at $4.60, ISP Finance dropped $2 to $15, with 17,300 shares. Jamaican Teas ended trading at $4.90, with 9,033 stock units, Jetcon Corporation traded at $4, with 48,100 units, Key Insurance climbed 54 cents and finished trading at $3.29, with 4,500 shares, Knutsford Express ended 75 cents higher at $13.75, with 7,444 shares changing hands. Lasco Distributors concluded trading at $4, with 277,173 stock units, Lasco Financial finished with a loss of 13 cents at $5.12, after 168,368 units traded, Lasco Manufacturing settled with a loss of 29 cents at $3.90, with 98,495 shares, Main Event ended trading at $7.35, with 7,870 units followed by Stationery and Office closing 6 cents higher at $8.06, with 31,803 units and tTech concluded trading 45 cents higher at $5.75, with 24,600 shares changing hands.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange enjoyed strong positive gains in the indices at the close of the market on Tuesday, resulting in the All Jamaican Composite Index jumped 3,314.64 points to 332,264.99 and the JSE Index climbed 3,020.01 points to close at 302,730.94. 
At the close, 12 securities gained, 7 declined and 10 traded firm
May closed with an average of 589,414 shares with a value of $16,532.367, for each security traded.
Losses| Ansa Mcal closed with a loss of $1 and settled at 52 weeks’ low of $58 with 200 units traded, 
At the close of the market, Access Financial closed $4 higher at $52, with 500 shares, CAC 2000 finished with a loss of 47 cents at $8.50, with 28,600 shares, Caribbean Producers finished trading at $5.25, with 16,929 units, Consolidated Bakeries closed with a loss of 2 cents at $2.48, with 3,000 shares, Dolphin Cove finished with a loss of 9 cents at $17.90, with 1,000 stock units. Elite Diagnostic settled at $3.13, with 24,000 units, Express Catering ended trading 65 cents higher at $7.40, with 63,573 shares, FosRich Group traded 2 cents higher at $2.60, with 23,060 shares, General Accident finished trading at $3.39, with 900 shares. Honey Bun ended 5 cents higher at $4.80, with 1,100 units, ISP Finance finished at $17, with 200 shares, 
Jamaican Teas settled 10 cents higher at $4.90, with 1,000 shares, Jetcon Corporation ended trading with a loss of 10 cents at $4, with 360,753 stock units. Knutsford Express finished trading 50 cents higher at $13, with 956 shares, Lasco Distributors closed at $4, with 46,262 shares, Lasco Financial ended 5 cents higher at $5.25, with 51,210 shares, Lasco Manufacturing concluded trading 19 cents higher at $4.19, with 305,051 stock units. Main Event finished with a loss of 65 cents at $7.35, with 59,453 units, Paramount Trading ended trading 12 cents higher at $3, with 705 shares and Stationery and Office traded with a loss of 6 cents at $8, with 22,998 shares. In the junior market preference segment, Eppley concluded trading $8.14 higher at $8.14, with 1,000 units, Eppley ended trading at $6, with 5,451 shares, changed hands.
