Republic trades big but Is Scotia bottoming?

Scotiabank traded nearly 30,000 shares on the Trinidad Stock Exchange on Tuesday, making it the fourth largest trade since 236,520 units were traded on May 22 at $70, just before the bank released its six months result, showing a sharp fall in profit for its second quarter. Prior to today’s trade, Scotia traded 200,069 units at $68.94, on July 9 and 40,719 shares on July 31, at $66.74 each.
The next closest volume, was a trade of 25,042 units at $60.80, on September 25. The amount traded today has been on offer from October 24 at $58. The big question, is the end of the decline from $70 which started in May, coming to an end? At the close there was a bid to buy only 100 units at $57.50 and a small offer to sell 317 units at $58. The PE ratio of the stock is just over 16 times this year’s earnings, and is close to Republic Banks PE, suggesting that the decline may not have long to run, but buying ahead of the October year end results, may be tempered while the release is pending. Regardless, Investors should be putting this one on their Watch List, now that the price has declined a fair amount.
The Market closed with 14 securities changing hands of which 2 advanced, 3 declined and 9 traded firm, with a total of only 261,908 units, valued at $15,296,503, with Republic accounted for $12 million of the trade, down from Mondays $15.7 million.
At the close of the market, the Composite Index lost 0.62 points to close at 1,146.56, the All T&T Index fell by 1.25 points to close at 1,962.15 and the Cross Listed Index remained unchanged at 43.38.
Gains| Trinidad Cement had 3,949 shares trading, gained 1 cent to end at $2.01 and West Indian Tobacco climbed 4 cents to end the day at $118.56 while trading only 50 shares. The company announced an increased final dividend for 2014 of $1.39, up from $1.07 last year.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are, Angostura Holdings that added 9,627 shares valued at $120,338 to end with a fall of 3 cents at $12.50, First Citizens Bank traded 6,519 shares to close with a loss of 5 cents at $36.75, Republic Bank with 100,076 shares changing hands for a value of $12,084,190, suffered a loss, of 35 cents to close at $120.75.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are, Ansa McAL with 3,525 shares to close at $66.15, Clico Investment Fund with 29,360 shares valued at $648,856 to end at $22.10, Guardian Holdings contributed 5,812 shares at $13.50, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 50,000 shares being closed at 45 cents, Massy Holdings traded 386 shares at $68.55, One Caribbean Media with 1,150 units, closed at $25.25, Praetorian Property Mutual Fund traded 20,000 units to remain at $3.40, Prestige Holdings closed at $9.55 after trading 1,906 shares and Scotiabank contributed 29,548 shares with a value of $1,713,784 to end at $58.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 3 stocks with the bid higher than their last selling prices and 2 stocks with offers that were lower.