JSE rebound continues on Monday

July 24, 2017 by

Jamaica Stock Exchange indices rose again on Monday.

The main market stocks of the Jamaica Stock Exchange enjoyed a day of more rising prices than those declining which helped to lift the market indices higher than at the close on Friday. Trading was light with just $20 million trading taking place.
The All Jamaica Composite Index gained 624.71 points to 256,656.25, the JSE Market Index gained 569.18 points to 233,842.93 and the JSE US dollar market index advanced 12.74 points to 201.17.
At the close of trading, 20 securities changed hands in the main market with 2 trading in the US dollar market, leading to 12 stocks advancing and 5 declining. The main market ended with 1,923,682 units valued at only $19,764,112 changing hands compared to 1,934,322 units valued at $34,659,775 at the close on Friday. Trading in the US dollar market accounted for 7,001 units valued at US$2,227 bringing the total of all trades to J$20,049,173.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and US dollar markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 6 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 1 with a lower offer.
The main market ended trading with an average of 96,184 units valued at $988,206 for each security traded compared to an average of 84,101 units valued at $1,506,947. The average volume and value for the month to date ended at 117,153 units with an average value of $2,509,606 compared with an average of 118,550 units with an average value of $2,611,033 on the previous trading day. The average volume and value for June ended at 218,951 units with an average value of $3,871,959.
In market activity, Berger Paints traded 68 cents higher to close at $15.68, with an exchange of 3,390 shares, Cable and Wireless closed at 94 cents with 482,520 stock units traded, Caribbean Cement closed at $25.70, after losing 5 cents trading 8,699 shares, Carreras traded $2.25 higher to close at $90.25, with 3,615 units changing hands, Grace Kennedy closed at $41.50, with a loss of 49 cents exchanging 130,586 shares. Jamaica Broilers closed at $18.50, trading 19,716 shares and rising 50 cents, Jamaica Producers gained 15 cents, closing at $14.15 with 10,186 shares traded. Jamaica Stock Exchange closed 49 cents higher at $6.49 while exchanging 16,751 shares, JMMB Group traded 2,140 shares at $19.20. Mayberry Investments gained 3 cents to close at $4.55, with an exchange of 1,000 units, NCB Financial Group retreated 8 cents to $74.92, after exchanging 18,129 shares, PanJam Investment lost 50 cents and closed at $32, with 2,259 units changing owners, Portland JSX traded 4,957 shares at $10, Pulse Investments closed at $2.49, with 2,700 shares trading, Radio Jamaica closed 10 cents lower to $1.30 trading 110,851 shares. Sagicor Group gained 24 cents, with an exchange of 28,063 shares, to close at $31.99. Scotia Group traded $3 higher to $44 with 49,135 shares changing hands, Scotia Investments closed with gains of 10 cents to $36.10 trading 1,200 units, Seprod gained 20 cents, closing at $29.95 while exchanging 2,000 shares, Supreme Ventures closed at $7.80, gaining 30 cents with 1,025,785 shares being exchanged. Proven Investments US ordinary shares gained 0.02 US cents to close at 26 US cents trading 6,528 units and JMMB Group US 6% preference share exchanged 473 units at US$1.12.

 

Filed Under: Feature Stories, JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Junior Market gains on Monday

July 24, 2017 by

Trading on the Junior Market dropped sharply on Monday to 1,438.180 shares valued at $7,648,204.78, from 8,428,003 shares valued at $32,387,101 on Friday. At the close, the market index rose 32.62 points to 2,988.90.
Trading ended with 17 securities changing hands, down from 20 on Friday with 5 gaining and 11 declining and with 6 stocks having a higher bids than the last traded price and 5 closing with lower offers.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average of 84,599 units for an average value of $449,894 compared to 421,400 units for an average value of $1,619,355 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 74,820 units valued at $371,129 compared 74,208 units valued at $366,206 previously. In contrast, June closed with averages of 395,969 units valued at $1,799,200 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging closed at $3.50 with 7,486 units changing hands, Blue Power dived $4 to close at $45 with 143 units, CAC 2000 lost 31 cents with 500 shares trading to end at $6.40, Caribbean Cream jumped by $1 and closed trading with 3,205 units at $6, Caribbean Producers lost 23 cents to close trading with 700 units, at $3.07, General Accident lost 20 cents and closed trading with 14,242 shares at $2.50, ISP Finance slipped $2 and closed with 23,500 units changing hands at $12, Jetcon Corporation traded 142,419 shares to end at $4.50, after slipping 4 cents, KLE Group ended at $2 with 31,325 shares changing hands, Knutsford Expressclimbed $1 in trading 591 shares to end at $15, Lasco Distributors closed 59 cents higher at $6.90 after trading 552,000 units, Lasco Financial lost 5 cents and ended with 235,000 shares changing hands at $3.50, Lasco Manufacturing shed 30 cents and ended with 418,482 shares trading at $4.50, Main Event lost 30 cents to close with 689 shares trading at $5.30,  Medical Disposables rose 1 cent, ending at $5.51 with 250 units trading, Paramount Trading gained 20 cents and ended with 1,000 units changing hands at $2.95 and  tTech traded 33,400 units, falling 40 cents to close at $9.60.

Filed Under: JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FX Inflows at highest level for July

July 24, 2017 by

Inflows into the Jamaican foreign exchange market jumped to the highest level in July to US$61.79 million on Monday with outflows of $41.8 million and helped in bringing the month’s surplus of all currencies traded to US$140 million.
On Friday, inflows were $47.4 million and outflows of $43 million, In USA dollar trading, inflows into the system ended at US$56.4 million on Monday versus US$38 million on Friday, with outflows of US$36.6 million compared to US$34.2 million on Friday.
The value of the Jamaican dollar gained value against the US dollar with the selling rate for the US dollar ending at J$128.22 from J$128.44 previously. Dealers bought the US currency at an average of J$127.46 down from JS$127.41 on Friday.
The selling rate for the Canadian dollar fell back to J$103.12 from J$104.38 at the close on Friday, while the British Pound was less costly at the close, with J$165.90 buying the British currency versus J$166.67 and the euro, lost value against the Jamaican dollar, with it taking J$148.21 to buy the European common currency on, versus J$150.36 previously.
Bank of Jamaica will make US$10 million dollars available to authorized dealers and eligible cambios by competitive bidding process each Wednesday, from Wednesday July 26 through Wednesday August 16, a total of US$40 million for the first four‐week period. The Bank will publish a report from each B‐BXITT operation on the same day, including the weighted average exchange rate arising from the operation.

Filed Under: Feature Stories, FX Market Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Modest trading on TTSE

July 24, 2017 by
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Witco was the dominant stock traded on the TTSE on Monday

Trading on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange on Monday resulted in 12 securities changing hands compared to 10 on Friday with West Indian Tobacco controlling 78 percent of the market’s trades and with more stocks rising than falling.
At the close, 4 stocks advanced, 1 declined and 7 held firm as 63,288 shares were exchanged at a value of $3,292,849 compared to Friday’s trades of 331,248 valued at $3,574,568.
The Composite Index advanced 0.80 points to 1,207.73, the All T&T Index gained 0.41 points to 1,790.17 and the Cross Listed Index rose 0.16 point to 83.78.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended with 6 stocks with bids higher than last selling prices and 5 with lower offers.
Gains| First Caribbean International gained 2 cents, trading 529 shares in closing at $7.64, Grace Kennedy gained 3 cents at $2.79 in exchanging 9,000 shares, Guardian Holdings rose 4 cents to close at $16.20, in trading 2,000 shares and Trinidad & Tobago NGL advanced 10 cents to $21.93, with 6,346 shares changing hands.
Losses| West Indian Tobacco closed at a 52 weeks’ low of $125.82, losing 1 cent with 20,500 shares valued at $2,579,315 trading.
Firm Trades| Ansa Merchant Bank closed at $40, with an exchange of 163 shares, Clico Investment closed at $22.39 trading 10,200 shares, First Citizens traded 1,250 shares at $31.65, Massy Holdings held firm at $49.97 while exchanging 1,450 shares. Republic Financial Holdings remained at $101.90, with trades of 650 units, Sagicor Financial exchanged 11,000 shares at $8 and Scotiabank closed at $58.02, with 200 units switching owners.

Filed Under: Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

JSE response to Express Catering trading fiasco article

July 24, 2017 by

Kino Williamson (l), Head of Finance, Cable Bahamas Ltd. points to the USD label while Scotia Investment CEO, Lissant Mitchell points to the JMD label. Also sharing the moment (from left) are Marlene Street Forrest, Managing Director Jamaica Stock Exchange, John Gomez, COO Cable Bahamas and Dylan Coke, VP Originations & Capital Markets, Scotia Investments

Mrs. Marlene Street Forrest, Managing Director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange responded to articles on Express Catering that were published on July 21, 2017 by IC Insider.com
The response to the Article
Article Sentence 1: “The Jamaica Stock Exchange indicated that the maximum price Express Catering could trade at on Friday was $1.86 which came about from a 15 percent average, of the price that triggered the circuit breaker which is $1.75 and the IPO price of $1.50.”
JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: This statement is partially incorrect. The price that triggered the circuit breaker was $1.74 and not $1.75.

The maximum trade price of $1.86 for ECL on Friday is correctly stated. With reference to the circuit breaker rule, which states that “No stock should trade +/-15% from the close price…” and noting that the previous close price is the current day’s open price, the (open) price of $1.50 was used to determine the trade range for ECL. With reference to the following section of the circuit breaker rule, which states that “…a simple average of the trigger price and the close price, will be used to determine the trade range for the remainder of the day” an average of the price of $1.50 and the trigger price of $1.74 was calculated to determine the trade range for the remainder of the day. The average price was $1.62 and the trade range for ECL on Friday was $1.38 to $1.86, which was +-15% of $1.62.

Article Sentence 2: “Had the first trade, taken place at $1.95 it would have shut down trading in the stock for an hour, but that price would have stood, being 30 percent above the IPO price.”

JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: This statement is correct. The price of $1.95 is within the 30% range and the trade would have remained if it was the trade that triggered the circuit breaker.

Article Sentences 3 to 5: “Regardless, investors placed a large number of bids to acquire the stock which was heavily oversubscribed, when the shares were issued to the public. The attached picture shows the bids above $2.20 at the close which are expected to be cancelled, with the closing bids limited to $2 which is the indicative starting price on Monday. That price will determine the maximum price the stock can trade at on Monday.”

The Jamaica Stock Exchnage subsidiary

JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: This is correct. The Price Limitation of the Close Bid and Close Ask policy states that “the close bid should not be more than 15% of the close price…” Consequently all bids greater than 15% of the close price of $1.74 were cancelled from the trading system. 134 buy orders were cancelled and the respective traders were advised of the cancellations. $2.00 is 15% of ECL’s close price of $1.74; the highest price permitted for the ECL close bid. The close bid at $2.00 is the effective close price on Monday, July 24, 2017 and will be used to determine the trade range.

Article Sentences 6 to 9: “Something must be wrong if investors can place orders into the system only to see them manually cancelled by the exchange after trading ends. This development is public relations and bad news for the exchange, but not many persons seem to care. The circuit breaker rule put in place to try and prevent wild daily movements in a stock prices seems to have out lived its life. It is not working well with new listings as it is preventing orderly trading in most new listings in the early days of trading.”

JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: The practice of manually removing orders that fall outside of the 15% limit has been in place since the implementation of the Price Limitation of the Close Bid and Close Ask policy.

Article Paragraph 3: According to an extract sent by the Jamaica Stock Exchange the Circuit Breaker Rule states that “No stock should trade +/-15% from the close price or the effective close price at the opening of the market. The effective close price is determined whenever the closing bid is greater than the close price or whenever the closing ask is less than the close price. Use the closing bid as the effective close price, if the value is greater than the close price or use the closing ask as the effective close price, if the value is less than the close price. However, during the day if the Circuit Breaker is triggered for a security, the trades at prices outside of the original prescribed band for the security will be disallowed for an hour to allow for the release of market news and a cool down period. The price of the trade that triggered the Circuit Breaker should not be +/-15% outside of the original prescribed price band. After the hour has passed the security will be released for trading within a new prescribed price band based on the new reference price, which is a simple average of the trigger price and the close price. The new reference price will be used to determine the trade range for the remainder of the day. The stock will not be allowed to trade +/- 15% of the new reference price.”

Starbucks one of the brand Express Catering will sell at the Montego Bay Airport.

JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: The circuit breaker rule.

Article Paragraph 4: “If it is were conceded that there is need for a daily price limit, the above rules have been made more complex than needs be the case. There is no logic in limiting one stock to trade at a 30 percent above the last traded price or indicative price and another to be limited to a lesser amount on the same day because an investor buys a stock at 30 percent above the prior days last price another at 15.1 percent above it which limits the trading for the rest of the day to less than 30 percent in the latter case. The new rules that were approved by the stock exchange in 2014 made no reference to a limit to the bid or offer that can be made during the day, exchange personnel have decided amongst themselves to improperly invoke the additional change that limits trading unnecessarily. The stock exchange should make good sense prevail and allow the above rules to be implemented fully as stated without the introduction of rules that the updated regulations do not include and from all indications were not signed off by the stock exchange council, went the change was submitted for approval. If that is done, it would remove the nonsense that now prevails in the Express Catering trading, with a huge line up of bids above $2 that are slated to be cancelled after trading today.”

JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: The Price Limitation of the Close Bid and Close Ask policy was implemented in 2014 after the circuit breaker rule was amended in order to effectively apply the revised circuit breaker rule, specifically the section of the circuit breaker which states that “The price of the trade that triggered the Circuit Breaker should not be +/-15% outside of the original prescribed price band.”

Summary
The amended circuit breaker rule has been consistently applied over the last three years. It was amended to provide increased liquidity during any one trading day. The amending of the circuit breaker rule was done to ensure that there was adequate cooling off period and adjust to market conditions.

In the case of the trading in ECL, there was no trading fiasco. The circuit breaker rule was properly applied and had no bearing on any issues with the new trading platform.

Filed Under: Feature Stories, JSE Combined, Stock Market Tagged With: , , ,

JSE Q2 profit jumps 41% one to watch

July 24, 2017 by

A sharp fall of $92 million in Exchange Operations’ revenue for the half year to June, resulted in the segment results falling $110 million to $41 million but a 41 percent rise in Depository Services’ revenues to $156 million and 20 percent in Trustee Services’ income to $137 million resulted in the segments’ profit rising by 83 percent and 17 percent to $82 million and $75 million respectively.
The improved performance in the newer services of the Jamaica Stock Exchange saw second quarter results increasing over the performance of the first quarter with a rise of 41 percent in profit after tax compared to a decline in the first quarter versus the strong 2016 first quarter. The gains in the June quarter reduced the fall in profits for the by percent to $102 million, compared with the corresponding financial period last year of $158 million. The six months performance resulted in earnings per share of 15 cents, the June quarter returned 6 cents per share.
Total Expenses grew 19 percent over the 2016 quarter to $167 million and 13 percent for the six months to $330 million. Major increases were experienced in professional fees which included cost for defending claims against an employee and advertising and marketing.
“It is expected that for the remaining quarters there will be more companies listing their securities on the exchange and a positive movement in fee income due to the expected increase in trustee Services clientele,” the chairman, Ian McNaughton and Managing Director Marlene Street Forrest stated in a release to shareholders accompanying the financials.
The balance sheet shows assets of $1.24 billion, cash funds of $517 million and stockholder’s equity of $891 million.
IC insider.com is forecasting earnings per share of 35 cents for 2017. The stock last traded on the Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $6.

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results, Stock Market, Stocks to watch Tagged With: , , , ,

Lasco Financial setting for profit explosion

July 24, 2017 by

Lasco Financial enjoyed decent gains in profit for Q1

Revenues at Lasco Financial Services jumped 22.4 percent for first quarter over the similar 2016 period to reach $319 million for an increase of $58.5 million, but importantly trading income climbed 31 percent to $303 million.
According to Managing Director, Jacinth Hall-Tracey “this result represents year over year growth of and is being driven by our strategy of expansion which began in the previous financial year”.
Profit before taxation, moved from $69.7 million in 2016 to $81 million, a 16.5 percent increase with profit after tax increasing 15.8 percent to $66.9 million, compared with the corresponding financial period and resulting in earnings per share of 5.4 cents.
Total Expenses grew 24.6 percent over the 2016 quarter to $238 million with Selling and Promotion cost rising by 31 percent. The increase was “largely driven by increases in Selling and Promotion as we continue to push the LASCO Money consumer facing brand name. This brand has resonated well with our customers and has enabled us to fully explain all our services. Previously, most customers were only aware of our Cambio and MoneyGram services. This brand awareness has been paying off in the increased transactions in all our locations as our customers embrace our more friendly community brand,” Hall-Tracey advised shareholders in a release accompanying the financials.
In the previous financial year, Lasco began the implementation of a strategy to expand the Loans Division by adding a Business Loans Unit. This expansion gave rise to several new loan offices as well as an increase in administrative and sales staff. Increased focus on lending, resulted in 70 percent growth in the loan portfolio that should move the portfolio in the region of $340 million. At the end of March loans amounted to $282 million up 43 percent over the $197 million due at the end of March 2016, no figures for loan is disclosed in the quarterly.
The balance sheet shows assets of $1.54 billion, cash funds of $574 million and stockholder’s equity of $1.22 billion.
IC insider.com is forecasting earnings per share of 30 cents for 2018 and should go on to about double in 2019. Lasco Financial last traded on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $3.55.

Filed Under: Buy Rated, Company News, Company Results Tagged With: , , , , ,

Express Catering enters TOP 10

July 24, 2017 by

Ian Dear, Managing Director of Express Catering

Trading started in Express Catering shares on Friday on the Junior Market, with the stock enjoying strong demand up to the $3 level. New information obtained this past week from the prospectus resulted in the earnings for this company being upgraded and it is included in the TOP stocks.
Importantly for Express Catering, the prospectus states that effective at the end on of May, the contract that gave rise to the payment of management fees was cancelled. The amount, the equivalent to 9 percent of revenues or roughly US$1.4 million will no longer be paid and should go towards boosting the bottom-line, and should result in the earnings per share around J$0.26 cents for 2018 fiscal year. The change means it is now a part of the TOP 10 Junior Market stocks. With the strong demand for the stock, it should spend just a short time in the list. The same out turn seems likely for Stationery and Office Supplies (SOS) once it starts to trade, with the IPO being nearly 4 times oversubscribed with more than 1,000 applications received for the 52 million shares.
With the initial public offers now out of the way, trading in the secondary markets saw more energy in the past week than for the previous two, with some stocks that were weak before, finding buying at the lower prices.
ISP Finance price rose to $14 after falling to $11 during the past week, but big declines in the prices of AMG Packaging and Caribbean Cream pushed out ISP as well Caribbean Flavours and CAC 2000 out of the top listing.
The only movement in and out of the TOP 10 in the main market were Sagicor Group that spent just one week a short while ago, coming back, as Cable & Wireless dropped out with a big gain in the price in the past week of 17.5 percent.
The average PE ratio for the Junior Market Top stocks is down at 6.6 with SOS in at a PE of 5 times 2017 earnings. The PE for the main market TOP 10, holds at 6.7. The average PE for the overall main market, remains at 13 and 12 for Junior Market, based on 2017 estimated earnings.
At the close of the week, IC Insider.com’s TOP 10 Junior Market stocks now trade at an average discount of 45 percent to the Junior Market average, while those in the main market are trading at a 49 percent discount, to the average of the market, leaving stocks with room for growth in the months ahead.
Last week IC Insider indicated that two stocks to watch were Cable & Wireless with the price around support level and NCB Financial with very limited number of stocks currently being offered. Both stocks bounced with the former rising over 17 percent to 94 cents and NCB rising to $75 from $71.50. Active supply for NCB is very low currently and technical chart suggests a big break out for it very soon. NCB is to be watched for a possible break towards $80 and Express Catering to well over $3.

Filed Under: Buy Rated Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jamaica’s Inflation spikes in June

July 24, 2017 by

‘Vegetables and Starchy Foods’ had a strong impact on price movement in June.

The Consumer Price Index for June 2017 increased by 0.7 percent, represented the highest monthly movement for the 2017 to date, a release from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) stated.
The rate of inflation for the calendar year-to-date is 2.1 percent, 4.4 percent over June last year, while the fiscal year-to-date rate is 1.1 percent.
According to Statin, the sharp increase in June was due mainly to increases in the index for the three heaviest weighted divisions: Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages up by 1.1 per cent, Transport 0.4 percent and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels up by 0.4 percent. The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages division was impacted by the flood rains in mid-May, which disrupted the supplies of agricultural products and resulted in a 3. 7 percent rise in Vegetables and Starchy Foods. The increase in the Transport division was influenced by higher prices for petrol. Increased electricity rates was chiefly responsible for the upward movement in the division Housing, Water, Electricity Gas and Other Fuels, as the class Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels rose by 1.1 per cent. However, the overall movement of the division was tempered by the 1.3 percent decline in the class Water Supply and Miscellaneous Services Related to the Dwelling. Other notable increases were recorded for Restaurants and Accommodation Services, 0.6 percent and Recreation and Culture, 0.4 percent.

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: , ,

Is Broilers’ inside trade a buy signal?

July 24, 2017 by

Insider trading in the stock of the company they are connected to can be a big indicators of future prospects, but it is not always the case.
In the past big purchasing of Jamaica Broilers Group shares by insiders have signaled improved profits down the road.
Could the latest big trade be such a signal? The latest ones are a bit confusing with bought buying and selling although there is a bias towards buying. The company recently reported that three Directors and three Senior Managers purchased a total of 5,735,448 of the company’s shares and that a Director and a Senior Manager sold a total of 5,214,772 of the shares, during the period July 11 to 14.
The company reported earnings of $1.85 per share for the just concluded 2017 fiscal year and IC Insider.com forecast is for $2.60 for the 2018 fiscal year to April as revenues continues to grow and debt is paid down with increasing profits. The stock which traded on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Friday at $18, is one of IC Insider.com’s TOP 10 main market stocks to own.

 

Filed Under: Buy Rated, Company News, Insider Trades Tagged With: , , , , ,