The Jamaica Stock Exchange suffered it worse day with a fall of 24,224.80 points off the Composite index on Thursday, beating the 14,424.69 points fall on Tuesday when the market closed at 511,165.47.
Main Market stock suffering significant declines include NCB Financial $1.55, Caribbean Cement $2, PanJam Investments $2.01, Scotia Group $2, Sygnus Credit $3.30 and Wisynco off $2.45.
The Junior Market that has been under pressure some months and fell 99.62 points on Wednesday dropped another 102.35 points on Thursday, to close at 2,656.41. Junior Market stocks that suffered the greatest losses that to Thursday’s sharp fall include Access Financial down $2.11, Blue Power off 56 cents, Cargo Handlers with a loss of 96 cents Express Catering falling 46 cents, General Accident down 80 cents, Knutsford Express off by 65 cents and Stationery and Office Supplies down 75 cents.
Caribbean Assurance oversubscribed
Caribbean Assurance Brokers Initial Public Offer of shares to the public closed shortly after opening on Tuesday, February 18, with the issue oversubscribed, Mayberry Investments, brokers for the issue announced.
Caribbean Assurance Brokers offered 52.5 million ordinary shares at the price of $1.91 per share to the general public and selected group of subscribers. Mayberry will advise Applicants of the preliminary basis of allotment of the shares by Friday, February 21, under the Junior Market Rules of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (“JSE”). The Company has made an application to list the shares on the Junior Market of the JSE.
The stock is attractively priced and is likely to surge sharply after the issue opens for trading.
Sweet River delisted from Junior Market
Sweet River Abattoir and Supplies became the first Junior Market company to have its shares delisted from the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
The delisting is effective on Monday, February 10, 2020. According to the Jamaica Stock Exchange, “the delisting is in accordance with Junior Market Rule 505 (14) (a) (i) and the Company’s failure to remedy Board Level and financial requirements breaches.
Sweet River was listed in2014 and the shares were undersubscribed, leaving the company short of critical working capital to function properly, as it embarked on building out a new abattoir. The targeted in the IPO was to raise $180 million from the sale of 46.6 million shares to the public, but subscribers only applied for approximately 30.6 million shares amounting to $118 million. Recently, the company’s land and buildings were auctioned off and acquired by the purchaser for far less than the more than $300 million they are recorded on the books.
Sweat River ran up losses of $124 million up to June 2019, according to the last interim report the company released to the JSE and had a net worth of just $19 million.
Caribbean Assurance IPO details out
Caribbean Assurance Brokers are offering just 52.5 million ordinary shares for sale at the subscription price of $1.91 with a minuscule amount allocated for the general public.
The offer includes 44.36 million units for Reserved Share Applicants, including 5.25 million for Mayberry Investments’ clients with just 8.14 million units available to the general public.
Earnings for the past three years to 2018 have been almost flat, but results to September 2019 show a steep rise putting pretax profit to $71 million compared with $43 million for the full year in 2018. Based on the 2019 results, annualized earnings on 263 million shares that will be in issue after the IPO will translate to earnings of 36 cents per share, with a PE around, five which is well below the Junior Market level.
The company intends to use the net proceeds of the IPO to (i) pay IPO & Listing Expenses, (ii) expand its brokerage operations to other Caribbean territories, (iii) extend the Company’s solar photovoltaic system and for working capital purposes.
The issue opens on February 18 and scheduled to close on March 3, subject to early closure. Investors fortunate to get a good volume will enjoy a nice payday, with the limited supply, the general public will have to be satisfied with the usual dribblings.
The company acts as brokers for International, general and individual Life Insurance and employee benefits.
The directors of the company are Raymond H. Walker, Chairman Chief Executive Officer. Non-executive directors are, Rion B. Hall, Norman Minott, Jennifer Rajpat, Barrington Whyte, Tania Waldron-Gooden, Carlton Barclay and Janice P. Holness.
Big inflation spike in 2019
The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) reported that the annual inflation rate in Jamaica to December 2019, was 6.2 percent, a sharp increase from inflation over the last four years.
According to data from the Statin, inflation in 2018 was 2.4 percent, down from 5.2 percent in 2017. In 2016 the inflation rate ended at 1.7 percent and 3.7 percent in 2015, 6.4 in 2014 and 9.7 percent in 2013.
Jamaica’s Central Bank, in response to the sharp rise in the inflation for the year, stated, the outturn “represents a sharp jump when compared with the 3.4 percent recorded in September 2019. This inflation outturn was not anticipated and was higher than the Bank of Jamaica’s target of 4.0 to 6.0 percent.”
The release from Bank of Jamaica, stated, “the higher inflation rate was primarily influenced by faster increases in food and energy-related prices in the consumer price index (CPI). The heavily weighted Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages division of the CPI increased over the year to December by 10.7 percent, when compared with 6.7 percent in September 2019. This was primarily related to higher prices for vegetables and starchy foods, the consequence of adverse weather conditions (drought followed by heavy rains) that affected the Island between June and October 2019.
BOJ interest cuts overnight rate.
There was also news of crop-related diseases affecting some items. Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels reflected higher rates for electricity and water, which was partly related to increases in international oil prices in the December 2019 quarter. This division increased over the year to December to 1.5 percent, compared with a decline of 3.2 percent in September 2019.”
The release continues, “despite the higher headline inflation, underlying inflation, which excludes the immediate influence of agriculture and energy prices, remained stable and below 3.0 percent. At the end of December 2019, the annual rate for this measure was 2.9 percent, which was unchanged compared with the rate in September 2019. This underscores that the Jamaican economy continues to reflect some slack with economic growth below its potential. It also highlights that the jump in inflation is likely to be temporary as expected tempered movements in agricultural prices dampen inflation over the next three to six months.”
Unemployment drops below 100K
The number of unemployed persons in October 2019 fell under 100,000 to 96,700, with a fall of 19,000 persons after 29,200 persons were employed over October 2018 and moving the number of employed to 1.248 million persons.
The development in Jamaica’s labour market saw the country’s unemployment rate hitting the lowest level in record history at 7.2 percent down from 8.7 percent for October 2018 and 7.8 percent in July last year.
The occupation group ‘Clerks’ had the most significant increase in employment of 17,700 persons for the twelve months to October. The second-highest increase was for the occupation group ‘Service Workers and Shop and Market Sales Workers’, which increased by 13,900.
The largest change in employment by industry group was in ‘Public Administration and Defence; Compulsory Social Security’ which increased by 10,800 persons, moving from 60,300 in October 2018 to 71,100 in October 2019. Employment in Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry & Fishing declined by 6,500 workers.
Lousy 2019 for Junior Market stocks
Junior Market trades
Junior Market did not end 2019 with glory splashed all over it with the market for small and medium-size companies, gaining just 3.1 percent in 2019, down from 18.8 percent in 2018 and 24.3 percent in 2017.
While the premier stocks rose appreciably in 2019, stocks on the Junior Market faltered in its performance in 2019, with the price of only one stock listed on the market at the end of 2018 doubling in value in 2019 and another coming close, with a rise of 97 percent. The Junior Market that saw a half of its listings declining in the year had just four stocks gaining over 100 percent. Three new listings in the Junior Market occupied the top three positions. Fontana, pharmacy operators, was the top performer and closed the year at $7.30 with a rise of 288 percent on the expectation that the new store at Waterloo Road that opened in the December quarter, will boost income and profit in the 2020 fiscal year. The second-best performer, the advertising and production company – Limners and Bards, was listed in summer and delivered a 200 percent increase for investors who bought the stock at the IPO stage. The recently listed MailPac Group, with gains of 111 percent from the IPO price of $1 took up the number three position.
Honey Bun fresh from the expansion of its bakery operations and a 20.4 percent growth in revenues in the September quarter and profit after tax rising 67 percent for the full 2019 fiscal year, doubled in price with a 103 percent increase.
Elite Diagnostic is the sole Junior Market stock from the 2018 TOP 10 to remain in the TOP 10 in 2019. tTech 6th worse performer in 2018, made it to the 2019 Top 10 in the eight position. Jetcon Corporation, the number 9 worse performer and GWest Corporation at number 10 in 2018 again ended in the worse ten performing stocks in 2019, in fourth for GWest and 10th position for Jetcon.
One major reason for the divergence for the performances of the Main Market and the Junior Market is to be found it the valuation multiple for both markets.
While both markets close 2018, with PE ratios around 16 times 2018 earnings the market moved decidedly in different paths with Main Market stocks approaching PE ratio around 20 leaving the Junior Market at just over 14.
Gains fin the Junior Market peaked at 12.8% on August 14 and drifted down since.
9 JSE Main Market stocks double in 2019
Last year was a mixed one for investors in the Jamaican stock market. On the one hand, Investors in Main Market stock enjoyed gains of more than 30 percent for the second year in a row, but Investors in Junior Market Stocks had far less to cheer about with a market rise of 3 percent.
Ten JSE Main Market stocks doubled in price in 2019 with the Jamaica Stock Exchange ordinary share leading the group with a gain of 177 percent with the Main market rising 34.3 percent for the year, upon the 31.7 percent rise in 2018.
VM Investments rose 120 percent to hold down the number two spot followed by Sygnus Credit Investments, Wisynco Group and Radio Jamaica. All three ended up on the worse 10 performing stocks in 2018 along with Proven Investments, the 10th best performer in 2019, with a 93 percent gain. Palace Amusement stock gained 100 percent, in 2019 and is the only 2018 TOP 10 stock to reappear in the top 10, in 2019. In 2018, it came in at number 3 best performing stock, compared to eight position in 2019. Palace has a remarkable record of more than doubling in each year, from 2016 to end in the TOP 10 for all of them
MailPac set to jump
MailPac shares were listed on Wednesday and closed at $1.32 for a rise of 32 percent, with less than 49,373 units traded.
The most recent information has the highest buying price at $1.72 for 305,000 shares, followed by 73,247 shares at $1.70 a lot of 26,388 units at $1.51 and 300,001 units at $1.50. At $1.49, there is buying for 60,357 units and at $140 to buy 4.37 million.
Selling starts at $1.35 with 24,092 shares, followed by 21,227 units at $1.44 and 21,227 at $1.45, with a total of 82 offers posted so far.
Trading in the early trading session on Thursday resulted in just 56,620 units changing hands at $2.10 at a PE ratio of 15. The maximum price that it can trade at for the day is $2.18. With the price movement to date, the stock has moved out of the IC Insider.com TOP 10 list.
5% of Proven shares traded
An investor picked up 31,265,399 proven shares in trading on the US market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange today, representing 5 percent of the total issued share capital of the company of 625,307,963 units.
The trades were executed at 31.55 US cents per share and cost US$9,864,233. The trades comprise a block of 21,374,171 shares with amounts in smaller denominations. Proven Investments’ record show Nekia Limited as the owners of the 21.37 million block and the second-largest shareholder.
The purchaser is unknown at the time of going to press, but Barita Investments subsequently announced that they acquired the block of shares that put them as the lead shareholder in the company. The move is consistent with realignments taking place within the dynamic Jamaican financial market.