Dealers sold US$34,873,810 on Friday for 4 cents more than they did on Thursday with the rate closing at J$112.87 to One US dollar
The Canadian dollar fetched $1.27 less than the previous day as customers bought C$625,477 at J$104.89 and £1,926,6160 was sold at J$192.08, 59 cents higher than on Thursday
J$ slips against US$ & British Pound
Scotia Group pushes All Jamaica Index by 1,786.85
Broker house Scotia Investments was the only buyer of the 875,724 Scotia Group shares that change hands in Friday’s trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. The prices of the stocks rose to close at $20, but traded as high as $20.99.
For the overall market, the prices of 11 stocks rose and 8 declined as 26 securities changed hands, resulting in 5,240,852 shares trading, valued at $35,553,505.
Main Market indices| The main indices closed sharply higher in Friday’s trading as heavily weighted Scotia Group, jumped to close at $20 by the end of trading. The JSE Market Index surged 1,598.01 points to 71,711.80 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index exploded by 1,786.85 points to close at 78,895.01.
National Commercial Bank that released results after trading on Thursday, closed up by 6 cents to $18.06 while trading 51,599 shares and closed with a bid of $18.11 to buy 116,978 units.
Carreras to consider another dividend payment
Carreras advised the stock exchange that a dividend payment will be considered at a meeting to be held on July 30, 2014 by the board. This should be the regular quarterly dividend which is usually paid in August.
Carreras last declared a special capital cash distribution of $1.34 per stock unit to be paid on July 31, 2014 to stockholders on July 18, 2014 with the Ex-dividend date July 16, 2014. The funds are out of proceeds received from the liquidation of a subsidiary, pending the granting of a transfer tax exemption pursuant to the Transfer Tax Act the company said in a release to the Jamaica Stock Exchange. The special capital cash distribution will brings the total payments the company made to shareholders since August last year to $8.89.
A special capital cash distribution of $1.18 was paid in January this year, the company also paid an interim dividend of $1.75 per stock unit on June 26, $1.62 per share. On March 13 they paid a dollar per share as well as in August and November last year.
Knutsford & AMG Packaging – Buy Rated
The buy rated list now has Knutsford Express, and AMG Packaging is moved back into the list. One Caribbean Media is moved to the Watch List as its valuation moved up considerably from when we crowned it BUY RATED in 2013.
Knutsford Express is moved in based on good May quarter revenue and profit growth which augurs well for profit going forward and AMG Packaging continued growth in sales flowing from increased volumes and a near doubling in profit in the May quarter and partial recover in profit margins. Jamaica junior market listed Caribbean Cream, posted strong gains in profit for its first quarter to May, to reinforce the Buy Rating placed on them.
In Trinidad ScotiaBank was removed from the watch list, with much lower profits reported in their second quarter.
The Jamaican BUY rated stocks overall did not do well but signs are showing that the usual summer recover is at hand. In addition IC Insider gathers that a least one big investor is looking to buy stocks now. Coupled with that, the two companies mentioned above, show that profits may be on the improve for Jamaican companies, and with likely stability not far off for the Jamaican dollar, above average gains can only be made in stocks.
AMG profit up 93% in Q3
Junior market listed company, AMG Packaging, enjoyed increased revenues and profits in the May quarter than they did in the same period, the previous year.
Revenues rose 36 percent in the quarter, to $151.6 million and 40 percent in the nine months to May, to reach $442.4 million, but profits were up by a very strong 93 percent in the quarter to $13.37 million from $6.9 million in 2013, and just moderately better in the year to date period, with $36.87 million versus $35.5 in 2013. Units sold increased by an impressive 23.4 percent, management sated in a release accompanying the results.
There is a noted build-up of inventory from $93 million to $174 million which would be a combination of rising import cost resulting from the devaluation of the local currency, as well as a hedge against continued devaluation and the need for more inventory to service increased demand for the company’s products.
While profit is up, an area of concern is the slippage in the gross profit margin, with the latest quarter, coming in at 25.95 percent, down from 31.19 percent in 2013, and for the nine months, it fell from 34.62 percent in 2013, to 24.20 percent in 2014.
For the three months, gross profit grew by 17.95 percent, much slower than the sales growth. For the nine months, the growth was a mere 6 percent. Fall in administrative cost from $13.38 million to $10.6 million in the May quarter and a decline in the nine months period, from $32.98 million down to $30 million, helped in boosting net profit. Other areas of cost savings, include finance by $4.4 million and depreciation $2.5 million, for the nine months.
Return on equity is around 18 percent, down from 20 percent in 2013 and could be accepted as being good, but there appear to be room for improvement. Receivables are up by $19.5 million over the company’s previous fiscal year ending of August, and so too is amounts in payables, climbing by $63 million, which seems to be helping to fund the inventory build while cash is down from $34 million to $8 million.
The continued increase in volume sales and cost containment augurs well for profit improvement going forward. With increased through put, unit cost of production will fall, allowing more growth in gross profit to flow into overall profits. AMG has to continue to grow its business by continued strong volume growth, to become a more cost competitive producer with lower unit cost.
IC Insider’s forecast for 2014 is 60 cents per share and $1.20 for 2015 on the assumption that volume sales continue close to current growth levels. The stock has been restored to the Buy Rated list, based on the forecast for 2014 and 2015.
Phillips & Wynter kill inflation in Jamaica
Many Jamaicans may be feeling the negative effect of the economic pressures the country is undergoing. One area in which it is seen, is the official data on inflation as the overall measure of consumer price movements, went virtually nowhere, in June.
Inflation in Jamaica is set to hit the lowest level, in years if the trend for the first six months of the year continues. According to data put out by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, the inflation rate for June is 0.1 percent, when compared to the index for May 2014. This is 0.9 percentage points lower, than the 1.0 percent recorded for May this year. The lower movement was mainly due, to a decline in the cost of electricity which resulted in the index for the group ‘Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ moving down by 4.2 percent. This fall was tempered by an increase of 3.6 percent, due to an increase in the cost of water. Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages rose by 0.6 percent. Upward movement in the prices of ‘Meat, ‘Milk, Cheese and Eggs’ and ‘Bread and Cereals’ were the chief contributors.
The movement in the index for June 2014 resulted in a calendar year- to-date inflation rate of 2.5 percent.
Mean quarterly inflation rate for the second quarter of 2014 was 1.1 percent, 0.3 percentage points lower than the first quarter which had an inflation rate of 1.4 percent.
Investment special issue coming shortly
Many investors may not be aware of it, but the local stock market is poised for a huge rally, interest rates are poised to fall and stability return to the forex market. No one really knows exactly when the local stock market will start the powerful run, but it could well be in the second half of this year.
There are big investors out in the market trying to get blocks of shares. Many others pocketed some at attractive prices earlier and stocks are scares as we write. The Investor’s Choice special issue covers, investment opportunities, in real estate, stocks in Trinidad and Jamaica, unit trusts investments and the best performing ones, money market the economy and more and will be off the press in days. Investors Choice is the publication that can best be used as a tool to help investors identify some of the best investments opportunities out there now. To purchase a copy call 926-2204.