Plenty buys says Market Watch
Jamaica Producers top inside trades
Jamaica Producers Group advises that a director purchased 433,941 shares in the company on June 6, 2014 while the Gleaner Jamaica advises that a senior manager sold 100,000 shares on June 3, 2014 and National Commercial Bank advises of the purchase of shares by Directors on May 30, 2014 and June 3, 2014 amounting to 37,208 units.
JIIC Profit almost drowns
Grace Kennedy’s subsidiary Jamaica International Insurance (JIIC) was almost fully drowned by sharply increased claims losses in 2013 of $1.89 billion, up from $1.34 billion in 2012 resulting in a small profit of only $17 million as gross premium income rose from $4.18 billion to $4.3 billion and investment income rose by $130 million to $542 million, mainly due to foreign exchange gains of $114 million that increased by $65 million. In 2012 the company made profit after tax of $180 million.
During the year the company reviewed its claims provisioning and increased the provision for claims in the third quarter of the year resulting in losses up to the quarter.
Profit in 2013 fell even as administrative cost was held steady at $813 million in both years.
At year end JIC boast total assets of $7.5 billion a slight increase over the $7.24 billion at the end of 2012, at the end of 2011 assets stood at $6.5. Shareholders’ equity stands at $2 billion at December 2013. The asset base put JIIC just below Guardian General with assets of $8.65 billion at the end of 2013 but almost twice the size of General Accident with assets of $4.26 billion.
Small profit for JN Life
A relatively new kid on the block in the life insurance industry – JN Life Insurance recorded increased policy holder liabilities of $35.6 million last year that helped push assets of this fledgling entity to $253 million according to the 2013 audited financial statements of the company, up from $198 million in 2012. Shareholders’ equity of $203 million is backed up mostly by cash and investments.
Income for 2013, came mostly from premium of $51 million which was inadequate to make an underwriting profit leaving an underwriting loss of nearly $5 million. Investment income and foreign exchange gains of $15 million helped to land a profit after tax of $3.8 million compared with a profit of $4 million in 2012.
JN Life is fully owned by Jamaica National Building Society, it started underwriting insurance in July last year, the audited financial statements stated, having obtained license from the Financial Securities commission in December 2012 to conduct ordinary life business and group mortgage blanket protection policy.
More inflows than outflows but Ja$ slips
The Jamaican dollar lost further ground against the US dollar with the selling rate rising as well as against the Canadian dollar but gained against the Pound sterling in Monday’s trading.
Trading levels on the market on Monday were above Friday’s as dealers bought the equivalent of US$50,757,616 compared to US$44,386,802 on Friday and sold the equivalent of US$43,628,758 versus US$41,450,934.
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$46,175,243 compared to US$41,028,885 on Friday as the buying rate for the US dollar fell 15 cents to $110.85 and they sold US$40,725,949 versus US$38,828,427 on Friday with the rate closing up by 3 cents at $111.40.
The Canadian dollar buying rate rose by 22 cents to end at $100.72 with dealers buying C$2,113,617 and selling C$1,742,238 with the rate rising 27 cents to end at $102.01.
The Pound closed at $184.39 for the purchase of £1,519,322 as the rate fell 17 cents while £679,265 was sold with the rate falling by 61 cents to $186.59
Other currencies bought amounted to the equivalent of US$134,869 while selling accounted for the equivalent of $169,598.
Highs & Lows| The highest buying rate for the US dollar declined 40 cents to $111.60 but the lowest buying rate gained 42 cents to close at $90.60, the highest selling remained unchanged at $116.09 and the lowest fell by $18.32 to be back at $90.18.
The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar rose 23 cents to $102.13, the lowest buying rate increased by 4 cents to $80.51 but the highest selling rate inched up 21 cent to $104 and lowest selling rate was up by a mere 5 cents to $97.
The highest buying rate for the Pound fell 35 cents to $187.15 while the lowest buying rate climbed $1.08 to $149.36. The highest selling rate declined by $1.90 to $192.55 while the lowest rate remained unchanged at $179.95.
JSE jumps in early trading
The market traded heavily in Scotia Group shares from the start of trading today as 952,700 was bought up to $22 each at 9.33 AM as Scotia Investments traded all but 81,019 units, the first trade of the day going through at $20. At 9.38 AM, Scotia Investments sold 100,000 units to Mayberry at $21.74 bringing the total traded in Scotia to 1,052,700 shares.
The price gain helped push the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index 2,475.52 points to 79,451.52 while the JSE Index is up 2,213.90 to 72,209.50.
Consolidated Bakeries traded 100,000 units at 86 cents and Berger Paints 3,759 units at $1.0 are the only other stocks to trade so far.
Operating profits up 81% at JMMB
Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB) had their best year ever in the period leading up to the end of March this year, chalking up at 80.7 percent increase in ongoing earnings. The market is not impressed as the stock has been trading down on both Trinidad and Jamaica stock exchanges recently and after the posting of the results. With profit after tax coming in at $2.8 billion including a $362 million for gains form the purchase of the shares in its fully owned subsidiary which it acquired fully in 2013, the group earned $1.74 per share for the year, placing the PE at 4 times last year’s earnings and around 2.7 times IC Insider projected 2015 earnings. In 2013 JMMB reported $3.74 billion but that was helped considerably by a $2 billion gain from the acquisition of the shares of Capital and Credit Group, without that gain earnings would be just $1.7 billion in that year.
Financial & Related Services contributed profit before tax of $2.62 billion and Banking & Related Services $443 million, these are up from $1.66 billion and just $33 million respectively reported for 2013.
Revenues grow| In a year when they took over the balance of the shares not previously owned by them in Intercommercial Bank in Trinidad, revenues climbed to $15.75 billion from $12.9 billion in 2013 or a 22 percent increase but staff and administrative cost rose from $4.6 billion to $5.67 billion in 2014 for a 12.3 percent increase, well below the growth in revenues but interest cost climbed only 6 percent.
According to the audited financial statements “In the six month period ended 31 March 2014, Intercommercial Bank contributed revenue of J$794,210,000 and net profit of J$156,445,000 to the Group’s results. If the acquisition had occurred on 1April 2013, management estimates that revenue would have been J$1,436,439,000, and net profit for the year would have been J$106,459,000”.
Assets|Total assets climbed to more than $200 billion for the first time ending at $207 billion versus $167 billion at the end of March 2013. A fair bit of the growth came as a result of the acquisition of the shares in the Trinidad bank which contributed $24 billion but with equity capital of just over $18 billion there is some amount of exposure as leveraging is at a high level with customer deposits at $36 billion and repos payable of $143 billion.
JMMB has operations mainly in Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. This stock stills carries IC Insider Buy Rating.
Jamaica’s inflation falls
A fall in the price of electricity lead to a 0.3 percent drop in the inflation rate for April this year, according to data released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, on the Consumer Price Index. Statin says “this was the lowest inflation rate recorded since July 2012, when the rate fell by 0.3 percent”.
This decrease was as a result of a decline in electricity rate, represented by a fall of 7.5 percent in the index for the group ‘Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ but was moderated by the 4.0 percent increase in the index for the group ‘Water Supply and Miscellaneous Services Related to the Dwelling’ as a result of a the rise in water and sewage rates for the period. The division, ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ recorded an increase of 0.3 percent.
The calendar year-to-date inflation rate for April 2014 was 1.4 percent, the point-to-point 7.6 percent. The other divisions that recorded increases in the All Jamaica ‘All Divisions’ index were: ‘Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco’ 0.2 percent, ‘Clothing and Footwear’ 0.1 percent, ‘Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance’ 0.3 percent, ‘Health’ 0.5 percent, ‘Transport’ 0.4 percent, ‘Recreation and Culture’ 0.3 percent, ‘Restaurants and Accommodation Services’ 0.4 percent, and ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ 0.2 percent.
GOJ revenues up in April
Image courtesy of cooldesign/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The GOJ enjoyed slightly higher revenues in the first month of the fiscal year with total inflows of $24.7 billion versus $24.4 billion budgeted.
The increase came from non-tax revenues. Expenditure was slightly less than planned and came in at $33.9 billion only $31 million less than budget, resulting in an reduced fiscal deficit than originally projected coming in at $9.16 billion compared to $9.53 billion budgeted.
The government however, borrowed $1.4 billion less that they projected to borrow in the month.
Imports down to February
Imports are down for the first two months of 2014 and was valued at US$884 million compared to US$1,117.4 million, a decrease of 20.9 per cent or US$233.3 million when compared to the same period in 2013” the Statistical Institute of Jamaica reported recently.
The figures are in line with imports in the first month of the year as imports fell sharply by 20.8 percent or US$115.7 million to US$442 million compared to US$558 million in January last year due mainly to reduced imports of fuel and chemicals but exports for January were also down sharply, declining by 25.3 percent or US$39 million to US$115 million, resulting in shrinking of the trade deficit by US$77 million or 19 percent to US$327.3 million when compared to US$404.2 million in the corresponding 2013 period.
