Carib Cement plant in Kingston – 2019 should be a big year for the stock.
Carib Cement could be the top stock to watch this week, with quite some supply taken out of the market last week, on the way to a record close on Friday.
Stocks on the Jamaica Stock Exchange have been consolidating, with little new information to stimulate investors to be either aggressively buying or selling stocks. The market indices have been going up and down for most of the year to date.
A series of significant developments are taking place locally, that investors should be paying keen attention to as they may have coded messages for what is in store for some for the rest of the year.
The strong double growth in stopover tourist arrivals to March has strong implication for earnings of three companies. Express Catering is one company to benefit directly as departing passengers numbers rise resulting in increased patronage of their restaurants. Dolphin Cove that came in for increased selling recently, is yet another that stands to benefit directly as more tourist arrivals will likely lead to more patronage of the attraction. Caribbean Producers and Everything Fresh, major suppliers to the tourist industry, will be selling more goods to the hotel sector.
Reduced transfer tax, stamp duties, reduced mortgage rates and increase in the maximum sum the NHT can lend will all feed into increased demand for development properties and lead to increased demand for cement and paints amongst other inputs into construction.
BOJ interest rate & cash reserves cut will help push demand in the economy.
The fall in interest rates led by Bank of Jamaica and increased liquidity that has flowed from the reduction in the level of cash reserves banks have to keep at BOJ, will lead to increased demand for loans and that will be positive for banks.
The exchange rate for the Jamaican dollar has swung from $138 to the US dollar to $125 currently. Such swings will result in big gains or losses for companies with large assets or liabilities in held in foreign currencies. Investors have to decide how to read the effects of such swings on profits and by extension the pricing of stocks.
Jamaica Public Service switch to the new LNG power supply as well as the solar plant to be added to the network this year, will reduce imports of petroleum and demand for US dollars and will result in the lowering of electricity cost to users. The change will also increase productivity of businesses as energy cost declines.
Other stocks to watch include this week include, Caribbean Cream that shot up to $6.60 on Friday with a sudden burst of buying. Sellers of General Accident shares have fallen, with just 4 now posting sell orders at the close on Friday. Buyers are trying to buy Elite Diagnostic stock at $3.20 or lower with sellers mostly wanting close to $3.50. Trading higher may not occur until closer to the release of nine months results due by mid May. Honey Bun is showing all the signs of moving higher. The bid for the stock closed at $3.98 versus the last traded price of $3.83. Fontana seems stuck around $4 but with strong potential for growth, it must be watched for the inevitable break out. Express Catering has been enjoying decent buying interest. It is bound to be a big winner from the upsurge in Tourist arrivals so far in 2019. Wisynco came in for some selling pressure last week even as reports surfaced that they are in talk with yet another local producer to distribute popular brand on top of a major local brand, this is in addition to talks they have been in to distribute a major local brand with big international foot prints. Supreme Ventures continues to make new highs and is worth watching. The price is high and may only warrant long term investing. A lot of the selling of NCB Financial seems to have ended with the market taking the remainder out last week. The stock may still take some time to break higher.
