On a day of low trading activity 4 securities were dominant by movement in their prices on the main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange as the market posted sizable gains in the indices.
Carreras rose 45 cents in closing at $11.25 with 205,850 shares after the 10 for 1 stock split, recently approved by shareholders. NCB Financial Group jumped $8.94 to $89 and Scotia Group recovered $4.95 of the loss on Friday to end at $50 and Caribbean Cement climbed $2.50 to $30.
At the close of market activity, Berger Paints slipped 50 cents to close at $11 with 60,411 shares, Cable and Wireless closed at $1.08, losing 2 cents with 146,795 stock units, Caribbean Cement advanced $2.50 to $30 with 2,000 units, Carreras rose 45 cents and closed at record high of $11.25 with 205,850 shares after the stock split, Ciboney Group lost 1 cent, trading 93,564 shares, closing at 16 cents, Grace Kennedy lost 50 cents and ended at $43 with 1,479 units. Jamaica Broilers gained 90 cents, closing at $16.90 with 42,927 shares, Jamaica Producers traded 205 units at $16, Jamaica Stock Exchange with gains of 65 cents, in closing at $7 with 1,370 units, JMMB Group closed at $21 exchanging 154,472 shares after trading as high as $23 in the morning session. Kingston Wharves ended with a loss of 40 cents at $32 with 3,142 units, Mayberry Investments gained 28 cents, in closing at $4.50 with 10,000 shares, NCB Financial Group traded $8.94 higher to $89 while exchanging 163,270 shares, 1834 Investments closed at $1.30 with 2,614,586 shares. PanJam Investment fell 43 cents, to close at $34.07 with 6,675 units, Pulse Investments closed at $1.70, losing 10 cents with 129,552 shares, Sagicor Group traded 29,148 stock units at $34, Sagicor Real Estate X Fund rose 2 cents, and closed at $10.62 with 3,000 units, Scotia Group closed $4.95 higher to $50 while exchanging 49,759 shares, Scotia Investments slipped 30 cents to $37 with 24,700 shares, Seprod exchanged 12,869 shares at $29.25 and Supreme Ventures closed 39 cents lower at $11.10 with 150,730 units. Productive Business Solution US ordinary shares closed at 65 US cents after gaining 5 cents trading 2,000 units, JMMB Group US 6% preference share traded 4,380 units at US$1.12, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.25% preference share closed at $2.50 with 13,600 units, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.5% preference share exchanged 645,775 units at $2 and Proven 8.25% cumulative redeemable preference share closed at $5.50 with 1,200 units.
Juniors up set to climb
In early trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, the junior market had a healthy gain in the index, lack of supply, could give a bid lift to prices in the upcoming sessions. After more than an hours trading, 11 junior market securities or 40 percent of listings, had no stock on offer, an indication that buyers in these stocks may need to move their buying prices higher to get the stocks they want.
Interesting trades, with 75 minutes having elapsed, are Cable & Wireless trading 501,500 units and last traded at $1.55 for a 3 cents gain from Friday’s last traded price, Ciboney Group with 28,200 units at a 52 weeks’ high of 19 cents, with a bid to buy 45,830 units at 21 cents, National Commercial Bank with a fall to $35.75 with 28,750 units, Caribbean Flavours at a new high of $6.75 with 16,512 shares trading and General Accident Insurance with 500,000 shares changing hands at $1.97.
At 10.45am, the all Jamaica Composite Index is up 72.22 points to 156,185.95, the JSE Market Index gained 64.62 points to 141,690.58, the JSE combined index rose 247.76 points to be at 147,539.23 and the junior market index rose 20.91 points to 1,646.92.
In trading, 26 securities have changed hands with a volume of 1,526,763 units as 9 stocks gained and 9 declined.
Ciboney shares doubled but why?
Ciboney traded 1,186,460 units on Wednesday at 16 cents for a 52 weeks’ high, but the stock closed with the bid at 16 cents to buy 1,813,540 shares as investor push to price up to levels not seen since 2004 when it traded as high as 32 cents. The stock has doubled since November 9 when it traded at 8 cents. On the September 24 there were trading in 4.36 million units and 5.36 on October 26 and 2.1 million units on November 16.
Why the interest in the stock of a company that reported a loss of $1 million for the quarter, ending in August and seems set to lose $4 million for the year ending May 2016? For the 2015 fiscal year, a loss of $5 million was reported and $8.7 million in 2014.
Ciboney has whittled down the funds it holds in cash and investments, to $14.5 million from $20.6 million at August 2014 and with the losses could be out of cash in another two years, unless they were able to sell the land which the company owns. The last valuation was done in January 2015 which gives a value ranging from $200 million to $215 million, but is on the books at $44 million. If the valuation of $207.5 million was fully booked, the net book value would be around 31 cents per share. So far Ciboney has not obtained a buyer prepared to pay a price close to the market value.
IC Insider has been informed that two parties have expressed an interest in acquiring the company in part. One proposal is without the land, with the land to be placed in a separate company to be formed to hold it in proportion to existing share ownership of Ciboney. The other would see FINSAC retaining the land in possible exchange for either a cash injection and or transferring the FINSAC shares to minority shareholders. The deadline for the offer is Friday this week,any agreement would be subject to a vote by shareholders. If the former proposal succeeds, cash inflows would be minimal initially and shareholders would have to wait on the sale of the land for further payment. In the second case, investors would see no cash but the share value could be between 30-40 cents, with the possibility of losses could be eliminated. There is no guarantee that any of the proposals will be accepted. In the meantime, the price of 16 cents is well under the 31 cents adjusted net book value.
JSE to repeat today’s gains on Thursday
The Investors Choice bid-offer Indicator shows 11 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with offers that were lower, in the main and junior markets. IC Indicator reading is suggesting that the number of trades on Thursday should see another day of many more stocks rising than falling.
Activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, resulted in 23 securities changing hands and ending with 4,735,155 units trading, valued at $24,434,254, in all market segments. National Commercial Bank, closed at a new 52 weeks’ high of $26.50 with 301,200 shares changing hands at 50 cents higher than on Tuesday and ahead of the company reporting six months results and dividend payment on Thursday.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index gained 474.33 points to 86,299.76, the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 530.32 points to close at 95,205.43 and the JSE combined index gained 446.19 points to close at 87,994.37.
Cable & Wireless with 256,932 units traded at 52 cents and ended with the bid at 53 cents to buy 100,000 shares. Ciboney Group traded 2,000,000 shares at 6, Desnoes & Geddes gained 10 cents and traded 29,400 at $6 with an offer at $6.50 at the close. Grace Kennedy with 19,224 shares that traded closed at 90 cents higher at $63, Jamaica Broilers had 86,530 shares trading to close at $4.70,
JMMB Group traded 855,593 ordinary shares for 38 cents higher at $7.48. The stock had JMMB Securities on the offer selling 268,800 units at $7.48, 5000 units at $7.50 and 34,655 shares at $8.50 as the lowest offers posted at the end of trading.The broker posted small buy orders from $7.03 to $7.10. Victoria Mutual Wealth Management sold the bulk of the shares to trade with Sagiocr Investments being the major buyer of them.
Radio Jamaica traded 13,372 shares at $2 to gain 25 cents, Sagicor Group traded 66,350 shares to close at $10.55 while gaining 10 cents in the process but traded as high as $10.75 before the close. Sagicor Real Estate X Fund had 529,519 units changing hands to close at $6.50, after shedding 25 cents. Salada Foods traded 35,480 at $9, Scotia Group saw 118,289 units, closing at $22, Supreme Ventures 19,900 units traded 4 cents higher at $2.84 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share, traded 317,331 units at $3.20 with an increase of 10 cents.