Monday, 14th October 2013 | The first trading day of the week saw the minor stocks dominating the main market volume as Cable & Wireless with 1,484,204 at 17 cents, down a cent; Caribbean Cement with 3,314,249 closing at $2.20, up 20 cents and Radio Jamaica with 3,166,688 units, closing at $1.32 were the dominant trades.
Trading resulted in 11,011,030 units changing hands valued at $23,764,695. There were 11 stocks advancing to 5 declining but only the junior market index moved up 7.25 to close at 754.37. Declines were moderate in the main market with the JSE main index going down 94.68 to 83,233.60 and the all Jamaica index falling off by 166.60 to 82,142.91.
Carreras investors picked up 23,449 units unchanged at $41; First Caribbean International Bank traded 3,224 units to close firm at $100; Grace Kennedy traded 3,180 units to close up a cent, at $56.51 while it traded in Trinidad at the equivalent of $66.40. Investors snapped up 203,759 units of Hardware & Lumber at $4.50 up by 5 cents; Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 99,289 shares to close firm at $8.00, well below the J$9.60 equivalent it is trading for in Trinidad. Mayberry Investments saw 28,160 units changing hands, unchanged at $2.60; National Commercial Bank traded 65,465 shares to close up 25 cents at $18.50; Sagicor Life traded 18,668 units, closing at $8.51, down 9 cents while Scotia Investments exchanged 117,950 units firm at $26.50 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference shares traded 100,000 units firm at $3.
Junior market | The junior market welcomed its 19 listing as Caribbean Flavours & Fragrances, the newcomer saw 86,420 units trading up to $2.58, an increase of 33 cents on the IPO price of $2.25. Lasco Distributors 1,186,462 units traded firm at $1.45 at the end; Lasco Manufacturing traded 949,326 units and closed up 5 cents at $1.50; investors landed 29,624 Paramount Trading shares at $3.05, up 5 cents.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed the market with a slight negative bias with bid for 1 stock being higher and 5 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.
Company results | Caribbean Cream disclosed increased profits for the six months to August amounting to $17.6 million before tax compared to $15.9 million in 2012 and after tax $14.6 million versus $9.4 million, as sales climbed from $307 million to $422 million. The problem is that the company’s earnings per share computation is now properly computed and the taxation included appear to be overstated. Administrative and other cost are up just over 50 percent to $71 million while profit margin declined as the company states that they absorbed cost increases resulting from the devaluation of the local currency.
