The main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, recovered some lost ground in the indices on Thursday but with declining stocks having the upper hand, on advancing stocks in the overall markets.
At the close the All Jamaica Composite Index added 207.77 points to close at 213,517.98. The JSE Market Index gained 185.79 points to finish at 195,297.61 and the JSE combined index rose 216.38 points to close at 209,490.78.
The market closed with 44 securities changing hands, 14 stocks gained and 19 declined in the overall market, including 6 stocks rising and 7 falling, in the junior market. Jamaica Producers traded at an intraday high of $10.20.
At the close with 14,496,376 units valued at $291,803,792 changed hands, compared to 6,870,141 units valued at $43,857,890 changing hands on Wednesday. Of the stocks traded, the junior market accounted for 4,583,153 units, changing hands, valued at $26,375,749.
The average trade for the day in the main market ended at 367,156 shares compared to an average of 217,586 units traded on Wednesday. An average of 428,302 units traded for the month to date, versus 528,824 units on the previous trading day, compared with an average of 549,379 units, December ended with.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 15 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 with lower offers.
Jamaican stock market up modestly Thursday
Junior market climbs major fall
The main market indices of the Jamaica Stock Exchange dropped in the morning session but the junior index gained in the morning session in trading on Thursday Trading levels climbed sharply over that on Wednesday.
Securities changing hands, amount to 36 at 11:50 am, compared to 28 on Wednesday at 10.45 am. A total of 14 securities advanced and 14 declined, resulting in a volume of 10,504,719 shares changing hands, carrying a value of $231,575,220, compared of 2,342,522 shares changing hands, carrying a value of $11,878,847 on Wednesday. The average number of shares traded, amount to 291,798 units versus 83,662 units on Wednesday.
The all Jamaica Composite Index fell 1,164.76 points to 212,145.45 the Jamaica Stock Exchange Market Index lost 1,041.50 points to 194,070.32, the Jamaica Stock Exchange combined index lost 916.60 points to 208,357.80 and the junior market index rose 4.78 points to 2,762.43.
Juniors finally close lower after 10days
AMG Packaging drops $9.95 on Wednesday.
At the close of the market, volume traded climbed 51 percent, from Tuesday’s level, ending with a volume of 1,865,673 units, changing hands, valued at $12,828,651, with a rise of 63 percent from $7,873,809 on Tuesday.
An average of 109,745 units with an average value of $754,627 traded, compared to 68,565 units with an average value of $437,434 on the preceding trading day. The average for the month to date is 116,803 units with an average value of $588,434 versus 117,445 units with an average value of $573,325 on Tuesday. The average for December is 131,147 units, at an average of $672,488.
The market closed with 8 stocks with bids higher than their last sale and 1 with a lower offer, than their last sale.At the close of trading, AMG Packaging dived $9.95 to close at $23.05 with 50,049 units changing hands, even as the company announced the payment of a dividend of 42 cents per share. Blue Power closed with 1,130 units changing hands at $37, Caribbean Cream closed trading at $7 as strong buying interest resulted in 847,000 units trading. Caribbean Producers, traded 392,000 shares and rose 20 cents to $4, Consolidated Bakeries ended trading 2,800 shares to close at $2.40, General Accident Insurance traded 70,000 shares to end at $3 after rising 10 cents, Honey Bun closed with 111,825 shares changing hands, for a rise of 5 cents to $6.25. Iron Rock Insurance traded 26,182 shares but lost 1 cent to end at $3.99, Investors bought 298,383 Jetcon Corporation’s shares to end at $9.50.
KLE Group closed at $2.20 with 4,000 units changing hands, Lasco Distributors ended with 3,500 units trading, to close at $7.03, after shedding 17 cents, Lasco Financial had 13,300 shares changing hands, to end at $3.63, with a 2 cents loss, Lasco Manufacturing ended at $5.15, with 13,824 units trading. Medical Disposables closed at $4.83 with 2,000 shares changing hands, tTech traded just 850 shares to close at $6.50 and Derrimon Trading preference share, lost 12 cents ending with 24,250 units changing hands to close at a 52 weeks’ low of $2.
Value of Jamaican stocks slip – Wednesday
Jamaica Producers traded at a new high of $10.
At the close the All Jamaica Composite Index lost 211.20 points to close at 213,310.21. The JSE Market Index slipped 188.86 points to finish at 195,111.82 and the JSE combined index fell 262.00 points to close at 209,274.40.
The market closed with 40 securities changing hands, 14 stocks gained and 14 declined in the overall market, including 3 stocks rising and 5 falling, in the junior market. One security ended trading at a new high and two at new lows, while one traded at an intraday high.
At the close with 6,870,141 units valued at $43,857,890 changed hands, compared to 4,982,675 units valued at $90,430,065 changing hands on Tuesday. Of the stocks traded, the junior market accounted for 1,865,673 units, changing hands, valued at $12,828,651.
The average trade for the day in the main market ended at 217,586 shares compared to an average of 138,833 units traded on Tuesday. An average of 528,824 units traded for the month to date, versus 489,448 units on the previous trading day, compared with an average of 549,379 units, December ended with.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 14 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 4 with lower offers.In market activity, Berger Paints ended trading of 49,420 shares to close at $6, Cable and Wireless ended with 3,797,843 units at $1.13, after falling 17 cents, Caribbean Cement traded 12,872 shares to close at $32, Carreras closed at $66.30 with 10,000 shares changing hands after falling by 20 cents. Grace Kennedy had 2,813 units trading, with the price falling 55 cents, to close at $40.10, Jamaica Broilers rose 88 cents and closed at $15.50 with 3,000 shares changing hands, Jamaica Producers traded 62,060 shares to end with a rise of 50 cents to close at a 52 weeks’ high of $10. Jamaica Stock Exchange dipped 4 cents in trading 6,300 shares, to end at $5.56, JMMB Group traded 283,799 units to end at $15.20, Kingston Wharves lost 20 cents in trading 13,200 units to close at $25.31, but retreated from an intraday high of $26.75. Mayberry Investments gained 5 cents in trading 170,522 units and ended at $4.75.
National Commercial Bank fell 21 cents swapping 21,233 shares, to close at $51.54, Portland JSX lost 20 cents to close at a 52 weeks’ low of $10 while trading 958 units, Pulse Investments traded 57,791 units and dropped 80 cents to close at $3.70. Sagicor Group closed with 62,000 shares changing hands with a rise of 20 cents at $28.50, Scotia Group with 38,123 shares changing hands, rose 10 cents to close at $36.60, Scotia Investments gained $1 with 1,000 units trading, to end at $33.49. Seprod traded 700 shares but rose 49 cents in closing at $30, Supreme Ventures lost 4 cents in trading 2,000 units at $5.11 and Proven Investments traded 356,514 ordinary shares to close at 22 US cents.
Declining stocks hold upper hand on TTSE
Trading levels on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange on Wednesday resulted in all three indices rising emanating from only 7 securities changing hands compared to 11 on Tuesday.
A total of 453,962 units valued at $7,222,917 were exchanged compared to 305,919 shares valued at $1,570,666 on Tuesday. The market closed with 2 stocks advancing, 4 declining and 1 unchanged
The Composite Index advanced 0.51 points to 1,216.31 points, the All T & T Index lost 0.64 points to 1,835.91 points and the Cross Listed Index gained 0.23 points to 79.80 points.
IC bid-offer Indicator|The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended with 8 stocks with bids higher than last selling prices and 7 with lower offers.
Gains| JMMB Group gained 5 cents, closing trading at a new 52 weeks’ high of $1 with 4,918 shares being exchanged and Trinidad & Tobago NGL closed at $20.43, advancing 13 cents with 30,203 units valued at $617,040 changing hands.
Losses| Ansa McAL closed at $65.99, a loss of 26 cents with 50,000 units traded, valued at $3,299,500, Massy Holdings was down 2 cents to $51.48 with an exchange of 3,000 units, Republic Financial Holdings lost 4 cents to close at $108.39 with 2,000 shares changing hands and West Indian Tobacco fell 3 cents, in closing at $127 with 8,613 units changing hands, with a value of $1,094,072.
Firm Trades| Trinidad Cement closed trading at $5.15 with an exchange of 355,228 shares valued at $1,836,167.
Main Event a buy – by David Stephens
Staff members of Main Event
The outlook for the media and entertainment industry is positive. The industry can be consider cyclical, which will benefit from overall economic growth. As companies expand operations and try to improve their client relationships, an effective media and events partner is valuable in maintaining overall brand reputation, consumer awareness and loyalty.
The industry is poised for growth as new marketing and entertainment trends emerge focusing on “experiential marketing” rather than traditional methods. In addition Jamaica is well poised to become the commercial capital of the Caribbean and this would lead to more corporate events, conferences, concerts and more, which is a direct benefit to the media and entertainment industry.
Products|The Company provides a diverse range of marketing, events and entertainment related services including equipment rental, graphic design, online marketing, project marketing and sound and video production.
The group is well established as a leader in their industry, with only 3 major competitors and a larger number of smaller players. They list their competitive advantage as being a full service company providing turnkey solutions. MEEG is involved in a number of signature events which occur annually. This provides a good source or repeat business from existing clients and a basis for new business for some of these clients.
Three directors of Main Event
MEEG has built up a good reputation in the industry, and brings a wealth of knowledge to clients. They appear well rounded and versatile in their offerings. They also own a fairly large stock of equipment which positions them to react quickly to customer demands. The company operates in a number of Caribbean territories which could present further growth opportunities regionally.
Risks/Concerns|Some risks to MEEG include:
1. Equipment becoming rapidly outdated with the emergence of new technology.
2. It is expected that this could be a very capital intensive business. Their decision to own equipment rather than lease could also be one that hurts them in the long run.
3. A lot of their revenues appear to be derived from a few major clients. This could prove detrimental should they lose one or more of these customers or their profits could be eroded due to increased competition.
4. Intercompany contracts surrounding sourcing of equipment etcetera, is of concern but this may have been done for greater tax efficiency purposes.
Financial Highlights|The company appears to be running short on cash with the proceeds of IPO helping to alleviate the pressure. Net earnings should increase once finance costs are reduced.
At current valuation, the company is trading at just over 2 times book value (inclusive of the cash raised from the IPO)
At the offer price, the company is trading at 10 times last year’s earnings, based on the new number of shares assuming no new income from the capital to be raised. The estimated 2016 earnings is put at $0.23 and estimated 2017 earnings at $0.33 (earnings could be closer to $0.40 per share if debt is reduced and gross profits improved.)
Based on these projections, the stock price using a market PE of 15 could reach a price of about $5 in the next 12 months.
David Stephens is an individual investor in local and international stocks.
Both markets down in early trading
Both the main market indices and the junior index fell in early trading on Wednesday. A fall in the prices of National Commercial Bank and Caribbean Cream seem to be the main factors for the decline as declining stocks out did advancing ones.
Market activity saw, Caribbean Cream traded 100,000 shares and lost 45 cents to trade at $6.55 while Jetcon Corporation has so far seen 293,383 units changing hands at $9.50 having opened at $10 and Cable & Wireless ended with 1,074,228 trading down to $1.18.
Securities changing hands, amount to 28 at 10:45 am, compared to 36 on Tuesday. A total of 6 securities advanced and 14 declined, resulting in a volume of 2,342,522 shares changing hands, carrying a value of $11,878,847, compared of 2,005,791 shares changing hands, carrying a value of $21,705,565 on Tuesday. The average number of shares traded, amount to 83,662 units versus 55,716 units on Tuesday.
The all Jamaica Composite Index fell -576.94 points to 212,944.47, the Jamaica Stock Exchange Market Index lost -515.89 points to 194,784.79, the Jamaica Stock Exchange combined index lost 565.40 points to 208,971.00 and the junior market index fell 8.47 points to 2,757.63.
Main Event priced to bounce
The Main Event Entertainment Group Initial Public offer of shares seem set to deliver a strong increase in share price once the stock list on the junior market probably in February. There are a number of positives to greet the issue.
The stock market is in a bull run currently. The stock is priced at just $2 which many small investors will be attracted to. The historical PE is just 7, compared to an average of 15 for junior market stocks, based on 2016 earnings. IC Insider.com is projecting earnings in the order of $100 million for 2017, assuming a 15 percent revenue gain, for earnings per share of 33 cents. Based on this, the stock should more than double in 2017.
The company grew revenues by 11 percent in 2016 over 2015 to an estimated $1.13 billion and by 55 percent over 2014 while that for 2013 was flat at $517 million. The company indicates that they had to recently turn away business due to capacity constraints which the fresh capital will fix.
Gross profit has been strong at 36 to 38 percent level in 2016, but it may be somewhat lower, as some items in administrative and general expenses may be directly related to events, rather than overheads.
Main Event,should benefit from the strong growth in the tourism sector and pickup in economic activity locally, that should see a greater number of Jamaicans patronising entertainment events, allowing for more events to be staged.
Importantly, the profile of the company will grow with the listing, as they benefit from daily exposure based on trading activity. The expanded directorship and regular examination of operations by the board and the infusion of capital will result in even better performance going forward and that should boost revenues and hold cost in check. This is a factor that should not be lost on investors.
Only 60 million shares are being sold, with few being available to the general public. The issue opens at 9 am, Tuesday 24 January and is likely to close at the same time. On the negative side, the company suffered a large fall in digital signage income with $75 million inflows in the 11 months to September 2016 from $139 million in the similar period in 2015. Receivables tend to be on the high side of nearly 2 months of sales, tying up nearly $100 million in excess of normal levels, while payables are running at 2.3 months at $181 million.
IC Insider.com is according an investment in the stock to be BUY RATED.
Jamaica’s 2017 inflation to beat 2016 – 1.7%?
Fuel prices at the pumps in May 2015.
Inflation in Jamaica for 2016, fell to the lowest level in decades, with the Consumer Price Index showing inflation rate at just 1.72 percent for the year. The findings were released by Statistical Institute of Jamaica.
The inflation rate for 2017 could be even lower than that of 2016, if the historical patterns repeat. The 2016 out turn compares with 3.7 percent recorded for 2015. The rate for December 2016 was 0.3 percent and is just below the average of fiscal year-to-date movement of 3.1 percent to December 2016.
The rate for 2016 would have been even less, had it not been for increased taxes imposed by the government on a series of items in the first half of the year. The added increase from taxes should not recur in 2017 as revenues are running well ahead of target for the 2017 fiscal year and a pickup in growth should see a healthy increase in revenues for the new fiscal year.
In 2016, inflation in Jamaica, benefited from a continuation in tight fiscal policies, pursued by the government, but it would have been negatively affected by slippage in the exchange rate of the Jamaican dollar versus the US dollar. Moderation in energy prices helped as well.
Going forward, the country should continue to benefit from relatively low energy prices a more stable exchange rate of the Jamaican dollar as foreign exchange inflows remain strong.
Data going back to 2002 suggests that the first two months of the year tend to have flat to negative inflation. In 2015 inflation remained below the December 2014 level until April and just inching ahead in May. In 2016 it remained below the December 2015 level until July.
Jamaican stocks cede ground on Tuesday
The main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, ceded some grounds to close out Tuesday ‘s trading. Advancing stocks being just below decliners.
At the close the All Jamaica Composite Index lost 118.15 points to close at 213,521.41 and is just 9 points adrift from the all-time high reached on January 6. The JSE Market Index slipped 105.65 points to finish at 195,300.68 and the JSE combined index fell 50.23 points to close at 209,536.40.
The market closed with 40 securities changing hands, 16 stocks gained and 11 declined in the overall market, including 6 stocks rising and 5 falling, in the junior market.
At the close with 4,982,675 units valued at $90,430,065 changed hands, compared to 24,599,887 units valued at $157,873,358 changing hands on Monday. Of the stocks traded, the junior market accounted for 1,234,173 units, changing hands, valued at $7,873,809.
The average trade for the day in the main market ended at 138,833 shares compared to an average of 688,233 units traded on Monday. The average for the month to date, is 489,448 versus 840,062 units on the previous trading day, well below the average of 549,379 units, December ended with.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 7 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 with lower offers.
In market activity, Berger Paints ended trading of 32,268 shares to close at $6, Cable and Wireless ended with 1,623,683 units at $1.30, after gaining 15 cents, Caribbean Cement ended with a fall of $1 while trading 255,458 shares to close at $32, Carreras closed at $66.50 with 7,191 shares changing hands after falling by 25 cents. Grace Kennedy had 112,010 units trading, with the price rising 55 cents, to close at $40.65, Jamaica Broilers fell 88 cents and closed at $14.62 with 54,101 shares changing hands, Jamaica Producers traded 30,807 shares to end at $9.50, Jamaica Stock Exchange traded 72,932 shares, to end at $5.60, JMMB Group traded 79,284 units to end at $15.20. Kingston Wharves gained 51 cents in trading 11,095 units to close at 52 weeks’ high of $25.51, National Commercial Bank fell 25 cents swapping 10,672 shares to close at $51.75, investors swapped 877,115 units of 138 Student Living at $4.50. Pan Jam Investment traded 47,415 units with the price jumping $3.40 to end at a $30, Portland JSX traded 3,242 units to end with a loss of 80 cents at a 52 weeks’ low of $10.20.
Pulse Investments traded 24,651 units and gained 50 cents to close at $4.50, but ended trading with the offer at $4. Radio Jamaica traded 337,368 shares to close at $1.28, Sagicor Group closed with 4,900 shares changing hands with a rise of 9 cents at $28.30, Scotia Group with 49,400 shares changing hands, rose 50 cents to close at $36.50, Scotia Investments fell 1 cent with 16,232 units trading, to end at $32.49. Seprod traded 21,012 shares but lost 89 cents in closing at $29.51, Supreme Ventures lost 14 cents in trading 37,216 units at $5.15 and Proven Investments traded 14,970 ordinary shares to close at 21.99 US cents.
