SagicorFinancial & NCB at year’s high

November 30, 2018 by

NCB trades at record TT$8 or J$152 on the TTSE on Friday.

Sagicor Financial jumped 75 cents and NCB Financial Group 90 cents to close at a at 52 weeks’ highs and drove up the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange up the cross listed and combined indices relatively sharply on Friday.
NCB Financial in jumping on Friday, is now priced in line with the close price in Kingston, now around $159. At close of the market the Composite Index climbed 22.82 points to 1,278.09. The All T&T Index declined 0.52 points to 1,691.10, while the Cross Listed Index gained 6.40 points to close at 116.79.
Market activity on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange ended on Friday with trading in 12 securities against 20 on Thursday, with 5 advancing, 1 declining and 6 remaining unchanged.
Trading ended with 611,620 shares at a value of $5,060,996, compared to 971,081 shares at a value of $36,439,815 on Thursday.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended with 1 stock with the bid lower than the last selling price and 2 with lower offers.
Stocks closing with gains| First Caribbean International Bank closed trading of 1,270 units with a gain of 5 cents to end at $8.05, JMMB Group gained 5 cents and completed trading at $1.75, after exchanging 141,281 shares, NCB Financial Group ended trading of 169,650 shares after jumping 90 cents and ended at a record $8, Republic Financial Holdings gained 26 cents to $107.26, after exchanging 251 shares and Sagicor Financial ended trading with a jump of 75 cents and settled at 52 weeks’ high of $10, with 283,131 stock units changing hands.
Stocks closing with losses| Prestige Holdings fell 15 cents and concluded at trading at $7.35, with 903 units exchanged.
Stocks closing firm| Clico Investments settled at $20.20, with 764 stock units changing hands, First Citizens ended at $32.76, after exchanging 5,577 shares, Grace Kennedy settled at $3, with 1,495 stock units changing hands, Scotiabank concluded trading of 500 units at $64.66, Trinidad & Tobago NGL ended at $29.12, after exchanging 6,152 shares and West Indian Tobacco concluded market activity at $95, with 646 units changing hands.

Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

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Many more stocks to watch now

November 29, 2018 by

NCB had a good 2018 fiscal year with strong profit gains that boosted interest in the stock.

There was another big insider trade, in NCB Financial Group shares following last weeks’ big trade valued at $650 million.
Jamaica’s largest financial institution, advised the Jamaica Stock Exchange that a connected party sold 2,768,165 of the group’s shares and three directors and a senior manager purchased a total of 2,836,672 shares between November 23 and 26. This development is the clearest signs that the immediate future is extremely bright for the group.
The local stock market is showing major shift in sentiment with the news that Scotia Group is selling off of its insurance arm to Sagicor Group. The announcement drove up the prices of Scotia Group, Sagicor Group and Pan Jamaican that traded at a new high on Wednesday. But NCB continued to scale new highs on each day for the week. NCB has little supply coming onto the market as demand continues to climb.
All the above stocks are now the watch list, but investors must keep watch on Barita Investments that has shot up to a record high of $23 with a bid at $24.01. There is some amount of public chatter about the performance of the company that has encouraged more interest in the stock. The company will benefit from several developments in the financial market, including the impact of the change in accounting policy that will result in gains or losses in investments whether realized or not going straight to the profit and loss account. With growth in the stock market Barita should benefit in two ways, increased value of the portfolio, for example, 48 million JSE shares owned increasing around $100 million in the December quarter so far but Barita is said to also own shares in NCB that has risen sharply in price for the quarter. The equity linked unit trust will garner more fee income based purely on the fact that the portfolio would have grown based on gains in stock price. The other financial stock to be watched is Key Insurance that has traded over 21 million shares so far with the stock having a bid of $4 to buy over 911,000 shares. The movement in the Key shares seems like the start of an aggressive stance an investor, watch developments in this one keenly. Seprod also seems poised to rise with early selling from the public offer now appearing to be abating.
Mayberry Jamaican Equities is yet another to watch as the local stock market moves higher over the next several weeks and it could drag it mother company Mayberry Investments with it.

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NCB still stock to watch

November 26, 2018 by

NCB had a good 2018 fiscal year with strong profit gains.

NCB Financial is in the news since it released record full year results and announced a dividend of 70 cents per share at the end of the first week in November, and was followed with the announcement that the way is cleared for them to go after another 22 percent of Trinidad and Tobago based Guardian Holdings.
In the past week news came that there were big insider trades in the stock. There is increased buying interest in the stock. Where the price will be in the short term is anyone’s  guess.

The main market All Jamaica Composite index is a shade away from 400,000 points at the close of the week, is recovering from recent low of 383,883.07 points on November 7, having fallen 8 percent from the record high of 418,450.70 on October 12. The market looks poised to move higher as the main sell off might be over, but there are few stocks that seems likely to gain this week.
Technical chart shows NCB Financial heading to $155 but it traded at new high of $138 during the past week which is not very far from the target of potential resistance. Whether it goes higher during the coming days is anyone’s guess but it is worth watching with all the positive news its getting as well as increased buying.

Some of Seprod’s products.

 Seprod pulled back from the record high of $62 a few weeks ago, to sit at $30.10, now that the public offer of shares has closed with the issue oversubscribed. The stock could move higher in the days or weeks ahead. Selling from those who bought in the public offer may keep the price anchored around current price for a while before the selling subsides.

Investors should be keeping their eyes on Scotia Group. Last year they released full year results on December 7 and can be expected to release this year’s, on the 6th, investors could well anticipate them and drive the stock ahead of the release. Currently, there are no Junior Market stock that seems set to move much at this time.

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NCB is stock to watch

November 19, 2018 by

NCB Financial, released record full year results and announced an interim dividend of 70 cents per share at the end of the first week in November to be followed this past week, with the announcement that the way is cleared for them to go after another 22 percent of Trinidad and Tobago based Guardian Holdings on Friday with the NCB stock closing at a record high of $137.99.
The stock could make more gains in the week if demands picks up. Technical chart shows NCB Financial heading to $155, an area of potential resistance. The added Guardian ownership will add to earnings per share for the NCB group in the short term but longer-term synergies exits to take advantage of that should add even more to the bottom-line.
With just about all companies releasing quarterly results there is not much firepower that was released to move prices one way or the other, price movements will be more determined by perceived levels of under or overvaluation of individual stocks.
Investors should be keeping their eyes on Seprod that has seen increased supply with the recent public share issue having been allocated, the stock is considered a good buy at current trading of $30 or less. The company also posted results showing strong gains for the nine months. Stationery and Office Supplies that reported third quarter results that started to benefit from profit from the new book manufacturing business and continued strong sales growth. The stock price may well have factored in the good news but supply for sale seems limited.

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Stocks to Watch This week

November 12, 2018 by

NCB Financial Constant Spring Road.

Last week’s stock to watch, former IC Top 10 listing, NCB Financial, released record full year results and announced an interim dividend of 70 cents per share with investors welcoming the news by driving the stock to a record intraday high of $135.
The stock closed the week at $133 with good volume passing through the market. Demand is building for NCB Financial between $125 and $131, with offers at $133, $135 and then at $138. The stock could make more gains in the week if demands picks up. Technical chart shows NCB Financial heading to $155, an area of potential resistance, that means that the current price is not very far from the short-term target.
This coming week, several companies will report results for the third quarter. Some of them could result in stock price movements. Other stocks to watch this week are Stationery and Office Supplies that should report third quarter results that should benefit from profit from the new book manufacturing business as well as from contract that was being worked on from the second quarter and slated for completion in the third quarter. Seprod is another to watch, now that the allocation of the 92 million shares that were recently offered to the public should be known on Monday. Third quarter results will be pasted during the week but when that is combined with the likelihood that many investors will end up getting only a small amount of the shares they applied for, it will be anyone guess what impact both could have on the price in the secondary market.
Following the release of full years’ results with an increase of 84 percent to $374 million and a 315 percent increase in the last quarter to $193 million at Barita Investments, investors have been buying the stock in a second wave of demand, its one to be watched going forward. The Jamaica Stock Exchange has been enjoying increasing trading in the second half of the year and this is expected to provide a big boost in profit for the quarter and year to date, the stock should benefit in the coming week from this.

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Shake up in IC Insider Top 10

October 28, 2018 by

Volatility was the order for the Jamaican stock market for the past week as the market indices bounced around as declining stocks were plentiful as the Junior Market ended with three changes and the main market two.
The Junior Market lost Access Financial that closed the week at $49 from $45.50 to start the week. Iron Rock Insurance that climbed to $4.82 from $4.50 and Lasco Manufacturing that inched up to $3.60 from $3 exited as well. Coming into the Junior Market TOP 10 are Elite Diagnostic, Dolphin Cove and Lasco Distributors.
Caribbean Cement reported third quarter results with lower profit for the nine months than for 2017 but foreign exchange losses was the main factor. The exchange rate has now reversed and that should turnaround the negative impact by the end of the year, nevertheless IC insider.com downgraded full year earnings to $3.53 per share, resulting in the stock dropping out of the main market TOP 10 along with JMMB Group that rose back to $34 from $32. The moves allowed Barita Investments that fell to $18 and Salada Foods that slipped to $21.50 to re-enter the top list.
The main market closed the week with the overall PE slipping to 15.4 from 16 from the previous week, the PE of the Junior market moved up to 15.4 from 16.4 at the close of the prior week.
The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks average 9.1 and the main market PE is now 9.6.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at an average discount of 41 percent to the average for the Junior Market Top stocks but it’s a third of what the average PE for the year is likely to be of 20 times earnings. The main market stocks trade at a discount of 37 percent to the overall market.
TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns within a 12 months period. Stocks are selected based on projected earnings for each company’s current fiscal year. Based on an assumed PE for each, the likely gains are determined and then ranked, with the stocks with the highest potential gains ranked first followed by the rest, in descending order. Potential values will change as stock prices fluctuate and will result in movements of the selection in and out of the lists for most weeks. Earnings per share are revised on an ongoing basis based on new information received that can result in changes in and out of the list as well.
There will be no Market Watch report this week.

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Barita could spike higher this week

October 15, 2018 by

Barita last traded on the JSE as high as $20 on Friday.

The main market of the stock exchange ended the week at another record close with a number of individual stocks hitting new highs but this coming week could well be more challenging, investors have to bear in mind that the supplies for several stocks are very limited and could result in big price movements as happened last week.
Technical chart shows NCB Financial heading to $155 but it traded at new high of $134 during the past week which is not very far from the target of potential resistance. Whether it goes higher during the coming days is anyone’s guess but it is worth watching. Caribbean Cream moved up to $7.90 from $6.16 at the end of the previous week. The company posted better profit results in the August quarter but with less gains than in the first, as administrative cost rose to negate some of the top line growth. Those results may be unlikely to move the stock forward in the short term.
The Junior Market continues to inch forward as it appears that investors are waiting on results. They got Caribbean Cream and Paramount Trading at the end of week, but no major upward price movement is expected.

Caribbean Cream sales & profit slowed in Q2.

The indicators point to continued increased interest in the main market stocks with a number of them are high on the list to watch for this week with less indications that Junior Market stocks will move upwards in droves anytime soon. Stocks of interest this week are Grace Kennedy, Barita Investments with limited supply and technical indicators pointing to a price of $22.50 initially before going on to $27.50. Berger Paints, Jamaica Producers has very little stock offered for sale and that could result in a sharp spike in price at any time, Mayberry Jamaican Equities (MJE), Mayberry Investments that will benefit from increased profit of MJE, NCB Financial, Wisynco Group that has gone back above the $10 price level, CAC2000 that is very scarce, Main Event and Stationery and Office Supplies that seem to have exhausted selling at $09.50 with $10 being the possible next level. A number of these have limited supplies for sale.
With the average PE of the market now at a comfortable 16 times 2018 earnings, stocks valued less than the market average could see increased interest as investors look for bargains.
Grace Kennedy seems ready to break out of the $60 range as there is no big supply on offer now and during the past

Caribbean Cement price is stuck in the mud for now.

week, it traded as high as $75. Caribbean Cement keeps trading between $46 and $50, but there appears no real desire to move the price forward, this one could be negatively affected by foreign exchange losses in the September quarter. Kingston Wharves has always had limited supply, so it could move higher going forward, even the valuation is rich. Supply of JMMB Group has dried up and that could create the environment for the price to continue to move higher, it is also one of the lower valued stock in the main market. Investors need to bear in mind that the price is currently at a resistance level at $37, so it may move sideways with an upward bias for a while, unless strong buying pushes over this level.
An overall view of stocks indicates that the main market continues to be steered higher by an upward sloping support line as well the 45 and 125 day moving averages, lending support just below. The Junior Market is being guided by an upward rising long-term support line and a golden cross. The golden cross is a very strong bullish long-term signal, but market needs fuel of rising profits.

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Watch NCB & Kremi this week

October 8, 2018 by

NCB Financial could be a winner this week.


The main market of the stock exchange closed the week with two of the highest daily increases in the market index ever, a clear sign that investors want stocks to buy and the supply remains very limited and putting the bulls in control.
The moves last week in the main market and since the start of August has set the stage for several stocks to be on the move this week.
The Junior Market continues to inch forward as it appears that investors are waiting on results. They should get Caribbean Cream this week and that should be a strong set of results as the company benefits from lower raw material cost compared to the first quarter when profits jumped 59 percent.
The indicators point to continued increased interest in the main market stocks with a number of them are high on the list to watch for this week. Stocks of interest this week are Grace Kennedy, Barita Investments, Berger Paints, Mayberry Jamaican Equities, NCB Financial, Wisynco, Caribbean Cream, CAC 2000, Main Event and Stationery and Office Supplies, many of these have limited supplies for sale.
With the average PE of the market now approaching a comfortable 16 times 2018 earnings, stocks valued less than the market average could see increased interest as investors look for bargains.
NCB Financial went sideways for around two weeks but bids started building close to the closing prices last week and that could help it move higher this week. Barita had a relatively strong day on Friday with 261,000 shares trading, leaving only a minute amount of 6,200 units on offer at $25.

Caribbean Cream should post big gains in profit in Q2 this week.

Grace Kennedy seems ready to break out of the $60 range as there is no big supply on offer now and during the past week, it traded as high as $75. Caribbean Cement keeps trading between $46 and $50, but there appears no real desire to move the price forward, this one could be negatively affected by foreign exchange losses in the September quarter. Kingston Wharves has always had limited supply, so it could move higher going forward, as can be seen from the big jump on Friday to $83 at 52 times 2018 earnings the valuation is rich. Supply of JMMB Group have dried up and that could create the environment for the price to continue to move higher, it is also one of the lower valued stock in the main market. Investors have gradually sucked out most of the supply of Stationery and Office Supplies, below $10 and the price could move to the $10 level during the course of the week.
An overall view of stocks indicates that the main market continues to be steered higher by an upward sloping support line as well the 45 and 125 day moving averages, lending support just below. The Junior Market that traded recently at an all-time high, is being guided by an upward rising long-term support line and a golden cross. The golden cross is a very strong bullish long-term signal.

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Watch Grace this week

October 1, 2018 by

Grace Kennedy could move up this week.

The main stocks of interest this week are Grace Kennedy, Stationery and Office Supplies, CAC 2000, NCB Financial, Caribbean Cream, Main Event, Wisynco and Berger Paints, most of these have limited supplies.
With the average PE of the market now exceeding a comfortable 15 times 2018 earnings and rising, stocks valued less than the market average, could see increased interest as investors look for bargains.
Bulls continue to push the Jamaican stock market, to new heights last week as low interest rates and good profits help push investors into stocks against the back ground of limited selling.
The supply of several of the main market stocks are extremely scarce and that is working in market favour to move much higher, before too long. There are several stocks priced well below the market’s average and that could encourage buying interest in them as well.
NCB Financial went sideways for around two weeks but bids started building close to the closing prices last week and that could help it move higher this week.
Grace Kennedy seems ready to break out of the $60 range as there is no supply on offer now. Caribbean Cement

keeps trading between $46 and $50, but there appears no real desire to move the price forward. Kingston Wharves has always had limited supply, so it could move higher going forward. Supply of JMMB Group have dried up and that could create the environment for the price to move higher.
An overall view of stocks indicates that the main market continues to be steered higher by an upward sloping support line as well the 45 and 125 day moving averages, lending support just below, but the 400,000 points resistance could likely stall the rally in the main market for a while. The Junior Market that traded recently at an all-time high, is being steered by an upward rising long-term support line and a golden cross. The golden cross is a very strong bullish long-term signal.

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Several stocks to watch this week

September 24, 2018 by

NCB Financial stock closed at $110 after hitting $125 on Friday.

The main stocks of interest this week are Stationery and Office Supplies, CAC 2000, NCB Financial, Caribbean Cream, Main Event and Wisynco, most of these have limited supplies.
Barita Investments that was highlighted as a stock with main stock to watch this past week, moved $12.95, to end at $18.50 after it traded as high as $19.50. The movement in the price resulted in Cornerstone more than doubling their investment in the company within a short time frame. While it is not listed as a lead stock to watch this week, the stock has much more room to grow over the coming months as demand increases and supplies decline as the potential for much increased profit unfolds.
Bulls pushed the Jamaican stock market, to new heights last week, with the main market having 12 straight days of record highs and the Junior Market moving to new highs as well.
The main moved within 1,600 points of the All Jamaica Composite Index 400,000 points last week but pulled back from what is a major resistance point. The supply of several of the main market stocks are extremely scarce and that is working in market favour to move much higher, before too long. There are several stocks priced well below the market’s average and that could encourage buying interest in them as well.
Investors should keep their eyes on a number of stocks as some may move and others may trade in a narrow band. NCB Financial closed on $110, could move higher but there is a big gap between the offer prices and the bids and this seems likely to maintain volatility in the price for a while.
Grace Kennedy may not be ready to break out of the $60 range as yet but it’s a stock to keep an eye on. Caribbean Cement keeps trading between $46 to $50, but there appears no real desire to move the price forward. Kingston Wharves has just 9,700 units on offer up to $75, with 200,000 on the bid at $68.51, so it could move back to the $75 price this week. Supply of JMMB Group have dried up and that could create the environment for the price to move higher.
An overall view of stocks indicates that the main market continues to be steered higher by an upward sloping support line as well the 45 and 125 day moving averages, lending support just below, but the 400,000 points resistance could likely stall the rally in the main market for a while. The Junior Market that traded recently at an all-time high, is being steered by an upward rising long-term support line and a golden cross. The golden cross is a very strong bullish long-term signal.

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