The Jamaican dollar recorded gains against the British Pound but lost value versus the US and Canadian dollars on Tuesday. Authorized dealers purchased the equivalent of US$31,456,476 versus US$41,860,767 on Monday, and sold the equivalent of US$34,496,767 compared with US$35,129,589 on Monday.
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$27,663,380 compared to US$36,285,855 on Monday. The buying rate for the US dollar climbed 17 cents to $112.70 and US$31,954,441 was sold versus US$32,952,884 on Monday. The selling rate inched up 7 cents to end at $113.23. The Canadian dollar buying rate climbed $1.45 to $98.72 with dealers buying C$2,227,276 and selling C$1,784,742, at an average selling rate that was up 27 cents, to $99.61. The rate for buying the British Pound dropped $1.29 to $174.46, for the purchase of £1,044,071, while £424,070 was sold, at $176.43, a fall of 37 cents. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$225,880, while the equivalent of US$311,426, was sold.
Highs & Lows| The highest buying rate for the US dollar, closed unchanged at $113.45, the lowest buying rate gained 17 cents to $92.69. The highest selling rate was unchanged at $118.77 but the lowest selling rate rose $2.33 to $94.34. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar fell 80 cents, to $100.20, the lowest buying rate rose 75 cents to $79.85, the highest selling rate closed 37 cents higher at $102.72. The lowest selling rate rose 70 cents to $96. The highest buying rate for the British Pound, dipped $1.35 to $178.75. The lowest buying rate gained 50 cents to $142.26, the highest selling rate moved up by $2.89 to $185.65 and the lowest selling rate, increased 60 cents to $171.40.
J$ gains on pound loses against others
NCB jumps 15% on TTSE
National Commercial Bank stock closed up 15 percent, on the Trinidad Stock Exchange on Monday, following the company’s release of year end results, and announcement of an increased dividend payment.
At the end of trading, 10 securities changed hands of which 3 advanced, 3 declined and 4 traded firm, with a total of 760,585 units, valued at $6,993,114.
At the close of the market, the Composite Index rose 3.60 points to close at 1,141.34, the All T&T Index fell by just 0.22 points to close at 1,961.52 and the Cross Listed Index increased by a mere 0.99 points to end at 42.07.
Gains| Stocks increasing in price, at the close are, Angostura Holdings that added 26,387 shares valued at $336,684 and closed, 1 cent higher at $12.76, Clico Investment Fund with 234,824 shares valued at $5,283,640, advanced by 1 cent to end at $22.51 and National Commercial Bank with a volume of 143,877 shares traded for $166,709 and gained 15 cents to end at $1.16.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are, Guardian Holdings, falling 2 cents, in trading 17,706 units, to close at $13.49, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 207,891 shares changing hands, for a value of $93,643, lost 1 cent to 45 cents and National Enterprises trading 5,000 shares to close at $17.48 and losing 1 cent to end at a 52 weeks low.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are, First Citizens Bank traded 1,400 shares to close at $36.76, Grace Kennedy traded 500 shares at $3.84, Praetorian Property Mutual Fund traded 2,000 units at $3.40 and Sagicor Financial Corporation contributed 121,000 shares with a value of $726,000 to close at $6.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 2 stocks with the bid higher than their last selling prices and 2 stocks with offers that were lower.
NCB shoots to $19 falls back to $18.15
Investors responded well to the National Commercial Bank’s year end results, showing earnings of $4.73 per share and with a surprise announcement, of a final dividend, of 96 cents per share.
The stock immediately traded at $17.75 at the opening of the market, and at $17.99 with the purchase of 448,385 shares. Later it traded just 12,412 units at $18.75 and 1,700 at $19 and then fell back to $18.15. Bids to buy start at $18.20 at the high end then $18.15, then $18.10 with a small amount at $18.05 then at $18, an amount of 147,000 units. The lowest offer is now at $20 with 29,918 units then the next serious offer is at $24. The total amount to trade so far is 475,780 units. The stock has room to move much further over the next twelve months with IC Insider’s forecast of $5.50 earnings per share for 2015 and the PE of the stock at 3.8 based on this year’s results. that is one reason why IC Insider gave the stock a Buy Rated status.
The price gain helped to move the All Jamaica Composite index up 521.71 to 81,121.66.
C&W & declining stocks dominate
Thursday’s activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, resulted in the prices of 5 stocks rising and 7 declining, as 19 securities changed hands, ending in 10,308,932 units trading, valued at $11,431,758, in all market segments. Cable & Wireless, continuing to trade in higher than normal volumes this year, accounted for 9.77 million of the volume.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed 5 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks with offers that were lower, a neutral situation.
Main Market indices| The JSE Market Index gained 153.62 points to 73,236.56, the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 171.76 points to close at 80,599.95 and the JSE combined index gained 115.71 points to close at 75,056.62.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Carreras finishing trading with 66,822 shares changing hands, to gain 55 cents at $35.55, Desnoes & Geddes concluded trading with 60,000 shares, 3 cents higher to $4.95, National Commercial Bank ended with 30,960 shares while gaining 10 cents to $17.11, Sagicor Group closed with 10,233 units with a gain of 20 cents to $9.80 and Seprod finished trading with 16,528 units, the price rose 63 cents to $11.88.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Berger Paints having 6,363 shares changing hands, to close at $1.60, Grace Kennedy concluded trading with 5,000 shares at $62, Jamaica Broilers exchanged 27,954 shares at $4, Radio Jamaica contributed 5,478 shares, in trading at $1.18 and Supreme Ventures ended trading with 3,000 shares at $1.75.
Declines| The last traded prices of stocks with losses at the end of trading in the main market are, Cable & Wireless ending with 9,771,352 units, trading between 60 cents and 50 cents, at the close the price slipped 1 cent to 50 cents, as selling increased from Wednesday. The stock traded mostly above 56 cents, but traded 476,700 units at 51 cents and 445,000 units at 50 cents less than 2 minutes from the close, to pull the price down and the end.
Jamaica Money Market Brokers ordinary share, closed with 101,200 units trading to fall 20 cents to $6.80, Jamaica Producers finished with 2,000 shares, loss 1 cent to $15.50 and Scotia Group ended trading with 36,844 units to fall 57 cents to $19.40.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share had 66,000 units changing hands at $3.
Eppley preference share closes over
The Eppley preference share issue, successfully raised the minimum capital sought by the company, the Jamaica Stock Exchange was informed. The preference share issue, maturing in 2019 in respect of 41,666,667 cumulative redeemable preference shares priced at J$6, closed as scheduled on Tuesday, 11 November 2013.
The issue was oversubscribed and the Company intends to exercise the right, to issue further preference shares, up to a total of 58,333,334 units. The basis of allotment will be announced today.
Trading in the Junior Market closed with activity in just 99,198 units, valued at $231,017. The JSE Junior Market Index declined 3.07 points to close at 662.69. Only 4 securities traded, with no stock advancing and 3 declining.
At the close of the market, there were 2 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 1 stock with the offer that is lower. The junior market continues to exhibit weakness with 9 securities closing with no bids to buy. There were 5 securities that had no stocks being offered for sale.
Access Financial Services traded 900 shares at $10.01, Caribbean Producers finished trading with 93,000 shares while losing 20 cents to $2, Knutsford Express traded down 4 cents to $5.45 with 4,450 units and Lasco Financial traded only 848 units, losing 3 cents to 95 cents.
2 stocks rose none fell on TTSE
Trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange ended with 10 securities changing hands, of which 2 advanced, none declined and 8 traded firm, with a total of 161,827 units, valued at $5,879,498.
At the close of the market, the Composite Index lost 0.29 rose points to end at 1,145.82, the All T&T Index fell by 0.58 points to 1,962.27 and the Cross Listed Index remained at 43.16.
Gains| Stocks increasing in price at the close are, Clico Investment Fund that posted a volume of 67,578 shares valued at $1,502,695 and advanced by 10 cents to $22.25 and West Indian Tobacco with only 120 shares, advanced by 1 cent to end at $119.04.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are, Angostura Holdings ending at $12.76 with 4,266 shares valued at $54,425.62, trading, First Citizens Bank traded 2,613 shares to close at $36.76, Grace Kennedy traded 100 shares at $3.84, Massy Holdings with 36,715 shares changing hands for a value of $2,516,813, closed at $68.55, followed by National Enterprise that contributed 550 shares and closed unchanged at $17.49, National Flour Mills with a volume of 34,921 shares valued at $38,762, ended at $1.11, Republic Bank contributed 12,551 shares with a value of $1,506,120 to close at $120 and Scotiabank traded 2,413 shares and closed unchanged at $58.16.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 2 stocks with the bid higher than their last selling prices and 1 stock with the offer lower.
Carreras, C&W and Grace dominate JSE
With technical indicators pointing to growth ahead, in the prices main market stocks, trading activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, on Wednesday, showed signs of trading picking up, in keeping with what has been known, as the usual year-end rally.
The three main trades today are Cable & Wireless with nearly 23 million shares, in 95 trades, Carreras with 1.7 million shares in 22 trades and Grace with 1.3 million shares with only 3 trades.
At the close, the prices of 5 stocks rose and 5 declined, as 18 securities changed hands, ending in 26,947,786 units trading, valued at $158,583,174, in all market segments.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 4 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 stocks with offers that were lower.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index lost a mere 9.89 points to 73,082.94, the JSE All Jamaican Composite index slipped 11.05 points to close at 80,428.19 and the JSE combined index declined by 10.68 points to close at 74,940.91.
Gains| Stocks recording gains at the last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Grace Kennedy trading 1,314,690 shares while gaining $3.90 to end at $62 for total consideration of $480,860,780, Kingston Wharves closed with 500 units to close with a gain of 11 cents to $5.41, National Commercial Bank finished trading with 28,822 shares, rising 1 cent to $17.01, Scotia Group saw trading in 2,990 units and put on 22 cents, to $19.97 and Scotia Investments ended with 32,000 shares trading 49 cents higher to $22.
Firm| Stocks in the main market closing without a change in the last traded prices are, Desnoes & Geddes that had 126,100 shares changing hands at $4.92, Jamaica Broilers concluded trading with 81,800 shares, trading at $4, Jamaica Money Market Brokers exchanged 518,134 ordinary shares at $7, Mayberry Investments ended trading in 96,890 shares at $1.50, Pan Jamaican Investment finished trading with 865 shares changing hands at $50.15 and Supreme Ventures finished trading with 2,000 shares at $1.75.
Declines| The last traded prices of stocks with losses at the end of trading in the main market are, Cable & Wireless closing with 22,917,657 shares trading, 1 cent lower at 53 cents, after opening at 64 cents, Carreras finished with 1,665,948 shares valued at $58,334,031 with a loss of 99 cents to $35, Proven Investments with 12,870 units, declined 0.01 cent to 17.99 US cents and Sagicor Group finished trading with 54,130 units, and declined by 5 cents to $9.60.
Heavy trading in C&WJ shares
In early trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, Cable & Wireless was the most active stock trading with more than 9.6 million shares changing hands.
Investors stepped up and bought the stocks as high as 64 cents at the opening of the market, inducing sellers to enter the market at lower levels, pushing the price back down to 54 cents. Increased offers are currently posted for 4.45 million units between 58 and 65 cents. Bids to buy, remain mostly in the low 40 cents region.
Elsewhere Grace traded 1.3 million shares as high as $62, the price is up $3.90 from Tuesday’s close and National Commercial Bank traded 4,848 shares at $17.50 up by 50 cents. Carreras fell 99 cents with 17,680 shares trading, to $35.
The price movements helped to push the All Jamaica Composite index up by 283.67 points, to 80,722.91 at 10.30.
J$ lost value against US & Pound
On Tuesday, the Jamaican dollar lost value against the US dollar and the Pound but gained value against the Canadian, as authorized dealers purchased the equivalent of US$26,093,184 versus US$47,873,352, on Monday and sold the equivalent of US$27,960,599 compared with US$42,619,796 on Monday
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$18,535,552 compared to US$41,018,591 on Monday. The buying rate for the US dollar fell 5 cents to $112.36 and US$24,597,836 was sold versus US$36,753,282 on Monday, the selling rate rose 11 cents to end at $113.01. The Canadian dollar buying rate, jumped 10 cents to $98.79 with dealers buying C$4,007,103 and selling C$1,735,342, at an average selling rate fell 8 cents, to $99.36. The rate for buying the British Pound climbed $1.72 to $177.93, for the purchase of £2,380,812, while £1,104,687 was sold, at $179.72, a rise of 66 cents. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$3264,45, while the equivalent of US$80,331, was sold.
Highs & Lows| The highest buying rate for the US dollar, declined 26 cents to $113.25, the lowest buying rate gained 50 cents to $92.52. The highest selling rate fell 21 cents to $117.70 and the lowest selling rate rose 17 cents $92.02. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar declined 15 cents, to $99.70, the lowest buying rate climbed $1.03 to $79.47, the highest selling rate inched up 50 cents to close at $102.15. The lowest selling rate gained 75 cents to $95.75. The highest buying rate for the British Pound, rose 70 cents to $180. The lowest buying rate rose $1.24 to $144.42, the highest selling rate dropped $1.10 to $183.48 and the lowest selling rate jumped $1.50 to $174.
Caribbean Producers up 10%
Trading in the Junior Market closed with Caribbean Producers gaining 10 percent, as the company with largest percentage price movement. There was a total of 686,019 units changing hands, valued at $857,142. The JSE Junior Market Index rose 5.37 points, to close at 665.91 as 7 securities traded, with the price of 3 advancing and 2 declining.
At the close, there were 2 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 stocks with offers that were lower. The junior market continues to exhibit weakness with 10 securities closing with no bids to buy. There were 4 securities that had no stocks being offered for sale.
In trading, Caribbean Producers finished with 20,000 shares with the price rising 20 cents to $2.20, Lasco Financial saw trading in 50,000 units and put on 8 cents to 98 cents and Medical Disposables ended with 10,000 shares with an increase of 4 cents to $1.94.
Lasco Distributors contributed 232,490 shares at $1.32 and Lasco Manufacturing ended trading with 235,894 shares at 95 cents.
Blue Power ended with 660 units as the price slipped 20 cents to $6.90 and General Accident finished with 136,975 shares with 2 cents fall to $1.53.
