IC Insider has ranked the teams in the quarter finals and make its forecast based on the preliminary round performance of the teams. Brazil the number 4 ranked team should have the better of the number 10 team, Chile with the latter scoring 5 goals and conceding 3 versus Brazil with an 8 to 2 superior record. Holland with 10 goals for and 3 against should have the better of Mexico with a 4 for 1 record, but this is not expected to be a walk over as the Mexicans demonstrated in the preliminary rounds that they don’t intend to quit easily.
Columbia’s 9 goals for and 2 against should, on paper place them ahead of Uruguay the number 13 ranked team with 4 and 4 but the latter performance in their last two matches suggests that it could go either way. Costa Rica looks as if they will progress to the next round over Greece who only won one match and have a negative goal difference with only two goals being scored by them. Costa Rica 4 goals and one against was achieved in one of the toughest groups. France the IC insider’s number 3 team should be too good for the number 15 team, Nigeria, the same is true for Germany IC Insider ranked number 5 team who should do away with Algeria the number 12 team. Argentina the number 6 team should blow away the Swiss team who are ranked at 11 with 7 goals for and 6 against compared to 6 to 3 for Argentina. Belgium on paper should have the better of the USA having had a superior goal difference and what a appears a more solid defense but the USA team seems to have a better goal hungry approach, if the latter can do better in defense than their last two encounters they look as if they are in with a good chance of winning.
2014 World Cup Quarter finals forecast
World Cup IC TOP 10 teams
At the mid-way point of the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals, the appropriate ranking of the various teams are best gleaned. The FIFA system of ranking teams is clearly flawed, with some of the top teams booted from the competition at a very early stage and others that were low on the list ending up in the 16 to contest the quarter finals. The get a better picture of what is likely to be a better ranking, IC Insider decided to use the data up to the mid-way point to rank the teams and arrive at the IC TOP 10. The TOP 10 rankings are listed in the accompanying table and shows the FIFA June ranking for comparison purposes. The winner for this year’s World Cup seems set to come from within the top 6 but Columbia appears the weakest of the lot but could well go far.
FIFA number 1 team Spain won just one match after they were eliminated from this year’s World Cup finals, the number 10 team, England never even won a match. The number 9 ranked team, Italy, managed just one win and bowed out of the tournament at the end of the preliminary round. The number 4th ranked team Portugal is also out of the top 16. The 28th team Costa Rica won all their matches against FIFA’s 7th, 9th and 10th ranked teams. The team that was ranked at 44, Nigeria, is in the top 16. Korea Republic was ranked at 57 did better than many ranked above them and so is the case with Iran that was ranked at 43, Ghana was ranked at 37 and is out of the top 16 but ended up at 23 based on IC Insider’s ranking.
More Insider trades
A senior manager of Scotia Group Jamaica acquired 9,284 of he group's shares under the group’s Employee Share Ownership Plan on February 19, 2014 and an Executive of Sagicor Group purchased 400,000 shares under the Executive Long Term Incentive Scheme on June 16, the companies informed the Jamaica Stock Exchange recently.
Trinidad’s Neal & Massy Holdings informed the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange that on June 6, 2014 a Director sold 13,563 of the company’s shares.
Sagicor and NCB inside trades
Inside trades continue for companies on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, the latest such trades are in two of the country’s largest companies and may well be indicative of the short term fortunes of both entities, with six months results for NCB suggesting a good year for them while Sagicor Group could get hit with the acquisition of loss making RBC Royal Bank Jamaican operation that could negatively affect the groups results for the second half of 2014.AIC (Barbados) Limited purchased 2,400,000 National Commercial Bank shares on June 18, this year and an Executive of Sagicor Group sold 1,200,000 of the group’s shares under the Executive Long Term Incentive Scheme during on June 18, 2014 a release from the companies to the Jamaican Stock Exchange stated.
On June 17, a senior manager also sold 1,820,000 shares of Sagicor Group under the group’s Executive Long Term Incentive Scheme.
JSE gets Canadian tax exemption
Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has obtained approval as a Designated Stock Exchange under the Income Tax Act of Canada. The approval was authourised by Canada’s Finance Minister Joe Oliver. A Designated Exchange provides that persons in Canada who purchase stocks on the Main JSE market will be exempt from taxes on income derived from these purchases in that country. The stocks on the JSE’s Main Market will become more attractive to Canadian Pension Fund, Investment Managers and Investors on a whole as a result of the tax exemption. If Jamaican Diaspora Bonds are listed on the JSE Main Market it will now be more attractive to the Jamaicans in Canada as they will not be required to pay income tax when trading these bond, a release from the Jamaica Stock Exchange suggest.
The JSE had to meet certain standards to have been recognized as a Designated Exchange, including adherence to rules and regulations, maintain a reasonable level of liquidity and offer a range of product on the Exchange.
“This is a significant milestone in our history, when the Canadian Government recognized the JSE as a Designated Exchange. This seeks to further solidify the relationship between Jamaica and Canada, a country which was instrumental in assisting the JSE with its first sets of Rules and the JSE’s Securities Course” Marlene Street Forrest, General Manager of the JSE, stated.
WI closing in on with a win
the West Indies now need to take 2 more wickets to claim victory in the second test against New Zealand in Port of Spain, Trinidad. New Zealand trail by 18 runs with 8 second innings wicket down. Scores in the match New Zealand 221 and 221 for 8 in their second innings and WI 460 all out in their first innings. New Zealand lead the series 1 nil at this stage.
Inside trades at Sagicor & General Accident
Croatia 4-0 as Cameroon players fight
Croatia the better playing team in the world cup match. demolished a Cameroon team that fell apart as one of its player effectively gave himself a red card and departed play, minutes before the end of the first half. At the end of an entertaining world cup match, the Cameroon team not only lost but will be heading home as they are without a point, with only one game to play. Things deteriorated for the Cameroon team when two players were virtually in a fight close to the end of play.
Croatia has a chance to move forward to the next round but would need to beat Mexico or if they draw they would have to rely on Cameroon pulling off an unlikely win against Brazil when they play next week.
T-bill rates drop sharply
The average rate for the 90 day Treasury bill instrument came out at 7.66 percent at today’s auction, down sharply from the May auction which came out at an average of 8.2 percent as Government sought to raise $400 million for this time frame but the auction saw $851 million chasing after the amount available. The 180 day instrument which averaged 8.932 percent in May plummeted to 8.365 percent as $877 million chased after the $400 million available.
Also on offer was a 30 day instrument to raise $400 million which provided an average rate of 6.797 percent as $534,303,700 chased after the $400 million that was available. The previous 30 day Treasury bill issued cleared at an average rate of 6.99 percent, in May this year.