Monday, 12th August 2013 | Investors not only snapped up a large portion of Cable & Wireless on Friday but took out the remnants of the stock that was on offer on Friday at 15 cents and drove the price to 16 cents at the end of trading. Investors bought 12,506,365 shares, most of it the moment the market opened, valued at $2 million. Demand that was non-existent from June 26 suddenly came alive last week. From Wednesday to Friday, 15.8 million shares traded with buyers picking up 11.5 million on the last day of the week.
Unlike Friday when there were not a great deal of bids, at the end of trading today there were 5.8 million units on bid at 17 cents while offers were around 19 cents. At the end of trade, there were bids for 23.6 million units at 15-17 cents and 9.4 million shares on offer at 19 cents where some volume can be found.
Look behind C&W | Part of the stimuli for the sudden interest could be tied to the release of information by Cable & Wireless Communications on the 25th of July indicating that whilst it is early days, they have seen a pick-up in customer numbers in Jamaica following the launch of a competitive new price plan. As noted at the release of the full year figures, market conditions in the rest of the Caribbean remain difficult, particularly in the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados. Interestingly, no mention was made of the difficulties in Jamaica. The major cost reduction plan announced at the full year is proceeding as anticipated and they are already seeing the benefits of the restructuring performed last year with operating expenses in the Caribbean down 5 percent against the first quarter in the prior year. Following the outsourcing of certain field force functions in Jamaica, they have seen an improvement in installation and repair times.
Other big trades | The next big trade was National Commercial Bank with 3 million units changing hands valued at $57.5 million as the price closed at $18.55, down 55 cents. Interestingly, NCB Capital Markets sold the bulk of the stocks with several brokers buying. Carreras came in with 240,000 units at a value of $12 million as the stock lost to close at $50.10, down 42 cents.
A total of 21.29 million units traded in the market at a value of $106.3 million as the price of 9 stocks advanced and 13 declined.
Main market trades of note | The all Jamaica Index shed 978.24 points (Friday 542.03) to close at 85,370.71 and the JSE market index fell 555.98 (Friday 308.06) to close at 85,906.57.
Caribbean Cement traded 65,500 shares and gained 15 cents to close at $1.66, a 52 weeks high. The bid closed at $1.66 for 17,000 units after trading as high as $1.85 and had an offer of 500 shares at $2.12, but there is virtually no supply in the market close to the offer price and only a few close to $3. Gleaner Company traded 1,853,251 units at $1.19, an increase of 3 cents for a value of $2.2 million. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 423,340 units valued at $3.6 million, the last traded price was $8.50, a gain of 50 cents. Pan Jam lost 63 cents to close at $51.12 with only 801 units changing hands. Sagicor Life traded 70,333 units to close at $8.40 down 30 cents and Scotia Group traded 51,680 to close at $21.06, off by 2 cents. Seprod fell $1.75 to $13 with only 1,100 shares trading.
Junior market | Stocks of 9 junior market companies traded as 2 advanced and 3 declined. Access Financial Services traded 67,570 units at $8.51 but traded as high as $9. Caribbean Creams traded 34,000 at $1.05 at the close but had a bid of $1.07 for 200,000 units at the end of trading. Caribbean Producers produced a volume of 154,958 units and closed trading at $2.03. Jamaican Teas traded 175,538 units at $4.35, slipping 5 cents on the day. Lasco Financial traded 114,784 shares firm at $1.49, down 3 cents. Lasco Manufacturing closed at $1.53, down 3 cents while trading 331,850 units.
Eppley shares that were listed on July 29, have still not traded and have no bids or offers at the close of trading.
Proven Investment ordinary shares traded 2,007,350 units valued at US$233,882, at 12 cents each.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer sentiment indicator shows that bids for 6 stocks were higher and offers of 2 were lower than their last selling price.
After the bell | Proven Investments posted net profit after tax of US$1,033,815 for the June quarter versus US$845,876 in 2012. Earnings per share was 0.35 US cents.
Guardian Holdings reported TT$36.571 million compared to TT$98.7 million and for the six months TTS$106.4 million down from $195.6 million in 2012.
