JSE: Grace $3.23 drop pulls market down

September 17, 2013 by

Tuesday, 17th September 2013 | In today’s trading, advancing stocks were overtaken by declining stocks 8 to 4 leading to a decline in all active indices. Trading levels were once more low with 6 million units being exchanged for $23 million. Preference shares accounted for $5.1 million of the amount traded. The all Jamaica index fell 297.39 to 84,897.19; the main market index was off 169.03 to close at 84,798.97 and the Junior market index was down 1.82 to 777.66.

Main Market | In trading Barita lost 23 cents to close at $2.27 with only 250 units; Cable & Wireless traded 394,815 at 17 cent down a cent; Carreras posted 7,082 shares to close at $47.60 down 5 cents; Caribbean Cement accounted for 65,799 units as it closed at $2.40 down 30 cents; Grace Kennedy put in 12,626 as the price dropped big time by $3.23 to close at $53.52; Jamaica Broilers Group saw 119,448 being exchanged at $5 at the close; Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 510,000 valued at $4 million as the price remained firm at $8; National Commercial Bank 41,659 units were exchanged firm at $18.65 at the close; Sagicor Life Jamaica 423,000 units crossed hands firm at $$9; Scotia Group 52,670 traded to close firm at $21.30; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% traded 267,000 firm at $3 and Proven Investments 8% traded 840,000 firm at $5.09.

JSEIndicesSept17Junior Market | On a day of high volumes in the junior market, Access Financial Services put in a healthy volume on Tuesday of 206,353 units valued at $1.7 million as the price closed at $8.35 an increase of 7 cents; Caribbean Producers put in 232,300 units to close at $2.10 off by 5 cents; Consolidated Bakeries exchanged 56,829 units firm at $1.35; General Accident Insurance had 161,642 units changing hands at $1.75 down 2 cents at the close. Lasco Distributors traded 826,639 at $1.50 up 5 cents; Lasco Financial Services put in a good volume of 1,692,047 units valued at $2.1 million as it traded firm at $1.25 while Lasco Manufacturing 91,880 units traded up 5 cents to close at $1.55.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed that there were bids for 8 stocks being higher and 2 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price. This is the same level as on Monday and shows a bias to more price gains ahead.

Image courtesy of Photokanok/FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , ,

JSE: Proven preference dominant in slow trading

September 16, 2013 by

Monday, 17th September 2013 | In another slow day of trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, 10,033,867 shares changed hands valued at $41,529,935. Proven Preference 8 percent shares accounted for 4,555,000 valued at $23,184,950 as the price closed firm at $5.09. There were 8 stocks that closed with increased in prices versus 6 that fell. The junior market index climbed 5.62 to close at 787.49 but the two main market indices fell quite a bit with the all Jamaica index going down 819.45 points to 85,064.08 and the main market index falling 465.72 to 84,893.83.

Carreras 22,532 units resulted in the stock closing at $47.60 down by 10 cents; Gleaner Company 178,398 units traded at $1.17 and was off by 3 cents at the close; Jamaica Broilers Group 23,082 units traded at $5 but slipped 10 cents; Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 171,892 units firm at $8; Jamaica Producers Group 12,890 units traded firm at $18.25; National Commercial Bank 107,550 units closed trading at $18.65 up 4 cents; Pan Jam traded 44,294 units firm at $51; Sagicor Life Jamaica 21,500 units closed firm at $9 and Scotia Group Jamaica contributed 216,865 units as it traded at $21.30 up 10 cents.

JSEIndicesSept16Junior market | Caribbean Cream traded 48,093 firm at $1.03; Caribbean Producers exchanged 150,000 shares to close at $2.15 up 5 cents; while Lasco Distributors put in a good volume of 191,670 at $1.45, down 5 cents for a value of $1,726,670; Lasco Financial Services contributed 2,618,867 firm at $1.25 and valued at $3,273,584 and Lasco Manufacturing just exchanged 126,264 units as it closed firm at $1.60.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed that there were bids for 8 stocks being higher and 2 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.

Filed Under: Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: , ,

JMMB grows assets $125B to $200B

September 16, 2013 by

Jamaica Money Market Brokers Limited (JMMB) has been given the green light to acquire an additional 50 percent share of the Intercommercial Banking Group Limited (IBL Group) to bring its stake in the company to full ownership. As a result JMMB, in just over a year, will almost double its assets from J$125 billion to $200 billion.

The acquired entity is a commercial bank in Trinidad & Tobago and not large by any standards as far financial institutions are concerned but it puts the Group in a position to gain market share in a country that seems to have started to grow again. By comparison, IBL Group is about the size of Mayberry Investments.

The IBL acquisition will add almost TT$1.55 billion in total assets that it held on its books at March (roughly J$14 is equal to TT$1). IBL assets enjoyed an increase of TT$336 million or 28 percent over the prior year and was mainly driven by the growth in the loan portfolio which moved from TT$488 million to TT$733 million. At the end of March, JMMB’s investment in IBL group stood at J$808 million for which they paid $331 million as indicated in the audited accounts. The data on IBL finances suggest that JMMB could have paid at least J$500 million for the added 50 percent ownership.

jmmbGrouplogo150x150JMMB in a release on Friday confirmed that the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has completed its assessment of JMMB`s application to acquire the additional fifty (50) percent of the shares of Intercommercial Bank Limited and Intercommercial Trust and Merchant Bank Limited, and has granted its approval to acquire the shares and become the 100 percent shareholder.

Profit | The Intercommercial Banking Group Limited (IBL Group) generated  increased  profit for the year ending March 2013 with a net profit after tax of TT$10.2 million, an increase of TT$5.7 million over the previous year but they reported a loss of JS$25 million in the quarter to June.

The banking group is operating in an economy of high levels of local currency liquidity, low interest rates and lackluster economic activity which have negatively impacted the demand for credit. Against these economic realities, IBL Group intensified its loan growth campaign which started in November 2011, and has been able to achieve an increase in net interest margin of 18.73 percent or TT$7.99 million to TT$50.66 million. Net interest income accounts for 61 percent of the total operating income of the Group. Interest income on loans and advances increased by TT$11 million or 26 percent while investment income fell by TT$2 million as a result of the low interest rate environment, as well as portfolio rebalancing into more liquid assets.

The Group’s operating expenses for the year was reported at TT$63.5 million, up TT$6.7 million or 12 percent over the previous financial year. IBL’s growth and expansion strategy over the past 17 months has contributed to this increase, the main drivers of which were staff related expenses and advertising and marketing expenditures.

Staff costs, the largest component of operating expenses, totaled TT$35 million to March, representing an increase of TT$4.6 million or 15 percent. In addition to the opening of the Tunapuna branch and the resultant incremental staff count, several key management positions that were vacant in previous financial year were filled in the 2012/13 financial year.

Client Deposits | In their annual report to shareholders, JMMB stated, “The total client deposit portfolio grew by 28.2 percent in the financial year which is consistent with the increase experienced in the loan portfolio. This represented a TT$66.2 million growth in savings and a TT$284.3 million growth in time deposits. The Group continued to focus on diversifying its deposit portfolio by expanding its core deposit (savings and demand accounts). While these efforts had some success in the year, we expect that more positive results will be seen in the coming months when several key initiatives in channel distribution are rolled out across the branch network.”

JMMB is an IC Insider Buy Rated stock. In 2011, JMMB placed third in the Investor’s Choice’s Champion Company award that recognizes management excellence.

Related posts | JMMB share offer taken up | JMMB big bump in profits | New additions to Buy Rated list

 

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: ,

JSE: Trading picks up but still light

September 13, 2013 by

Friday, 13th September | Trading picked up from the highly depressed level of the previous three days resulting in stocks of 31 companies trading but the indices, with the exception of the junior market, all fell. The main market index closed at 84,893.83 declining by 465.72, the all Jamaica index fell 819.45 to close at 85,064.08 and the junior market picked up 5.62 to 787.49. A total of 3,460,048 units traded on the market valued at $25,713,143. There were 9 stocks declining to 5 that recorded price gains.

Main Market | Cable & Wireless traded 513,649 units firm at 18 cents; Caribbean Cement saw trading in 56,200 units at $2.65 as it lost 13 cents; Carreras delivered 35,803 units to new owners as the price closed at $47.70 down 80 cents; Grace Kennedy had just 16,000 units crossing the floor at $56.75 as the price lost 24 cents; Jamaica Broilers Group exchanged 30,642 at $5.10, down 10 cents; Investors moved 47,172 of Jamaica Money Market Brokers shares through for a $8 close, down 40 cents.

JSEIndicesSept13In the case of National Commercial Bank 95,452 units changed hands at $18.61 for a 1 cents gain; Sagicor Life Jamaica added 240,925 units to daily total at $9 at the close, the same price as yesterday’s close. Scotia Group put in a nice volume of 713,922 at $21.20, the price dropped 31 cents while Scotia Investments had only 3,600 trading but it gained 99 cents to close at $28; Supreme Ventures ventured into the market with 32,636 at $2.70 at the end of trading as it put on 15 cents for the day. Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference shares traded 626,916 units firm at $3 and Proven Investments 8% preference traded 666,150 firm at $5.09.

Junior market | Trading in the junior market was very light with only 333,022 units changing hands. KLE Group traded 29,769 units Firm at $1.61, Lasco Distributors traded 23,970 units at $1.50 up 5 cents and Lasco Manufacturing traded 235,580 firm at $1.60.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had bids for 9 stocks being higher and 2 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , ,

TVJ Chairman resigns

September 13, 2013 by

Radio Jamaica Limited (RJR) has advised that Milton Samuda, Attorney at law, has resigned from the Board of Directors of the company effective September 11, 2013.  Samuda who was also chairman of the RJR subsidiary, Television Jamaica (TVJ) has served on the RJR board for seventeen years. As the head of the powerful Chamber of Commerce for a number of years, Samuda would have been the likely candidate to take over as Chairman for the RJR Group when the current Chairman Lester Spalding steps down.

The resignation comes in light of the controversy relating to a press interview which involved his clients, world-renown Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson. Samuda, who reportedly sat in as part of the interview, is alleged to have taken the journalist’s tapes which were later edited.

In the release issued by the company following an investigation into the matter, “There were corporate governance issues and policy breaches which the chairman of TVJ accepts.”

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: ,

JSE: 5 straight days of gains

September 12, 2013 by

Thursday, 12th September 2013 | It was another day dominated by Cable & Wireless with 13.798 million unit trading at 18 cents. The market closed with the price of 9 stocks climbing and 11 declining, the latter in stark contrast to Wednesday when only two were down.

Stocks of 29 companies were active as the volume amounted to 15.79 million units with a value of only $10.44 million. While the indices showed promising signs before the close of trading, in the end there was moderate movement with the all Jamaica Index rising by 49.32 to close at 85,883.53 and the main market index closed at 85,359.55 up 28.03, for the fifth straight days of gains. On the other hand, the junior market index slipped by 1.34 to 781.87.

Carreras traded 12,323 units and closed at $48.50, up 85 cents on the day as the price tries to make a slow recovery from the $45 mark it fell to recently. Desnoes & Geddes traded 500,000 units $4.55 for an a 5 cents increase; National Commercial Bank traded a mere 18,822 to close at $18.60 up 5 cents; Kingston Wharves lost 91 cents while trading 16,652 to close at $6; Sagicor Life exchange 47,866 units and closed at $9 up 49 cents; Scotia Group 62,745 units to close at $21.51 off 19 cents at the close. Supreme Ventures traded 162.342 to close at $2.55, down 25 cents.

JMMB 8.75% preference shares had 202,673 units trading firm at $3 and PROVEN 8% exchanged 195,500 units at $5.09.

JSEIndicesSept12Junior Market | Access slipped 22 cents to land at $8.28 cents but only with 2,731 shares trading. Blue Power Group had another fairly good day with 40,000 trading to close firm at $9.28; infrequently traded C2W Music put in a big volume of 155,000 units at 97 cents down 3 for the day, a new all time low; Caribbean Cream had 100,000 units exchanged at $1.03 up a cent at the close; Caribbean Producers had 20,287 units changing hands firm at $2.10; General Accident Insurance put in 44,350 units at $1.8,up 5 cents; Jamaican Teas lost 20 cents to close at $4 with 29,837 shares changing hands; Lasco Distributors 70,014 $1.45, up 5 cents; Lasco Financial Services 108,150 down 5 cents to $1.25 and Lasco Manufacturing accounted for 136,163 firm at $1.60.

IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator was showing signs of a fluid situation for the market with bids for 8 stocks being higher with 6 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , ,

JBG profit held back

September 12, 2013 by

A drop in Hi Pro profit from flat sales, increased corporate taxes provision and increased finance cost held back profit for the first quarter of the new fiscal year for Jamaica Broilers Group, one of Jamaica’s leading agro product company. This is despite a big jump in revenues and profit from the US operations, as well as a turnaround from a big loss in the ethanol operations in 2012 into a profit in this latest quarter.

Jamaica Broilers’ financial results for the quarter to July, 2013 show profits attributable to stockholders increasing by 10 percent to $140 million or earnings per share of 11.68 cents against $127 million or 10.60 cents per share last year. The moderate improvement in profit flows from revenues of $7 billion, a 17 percent increase over the $6 billion generated in the corresponding period last year. Gross profits for the quarter amounted to $1.32 billion, a 17 percent increase over the $1.13 billion of the corresponding period last year.

Expenses up | Distribution and selling expenses grew by a strong 26.5 percent to $280 million while administrative costs increased 13.4 percent to $838 million. Management states that the increases essentially reflect the impact of inflation along with costs related to organizational strengthening. Finance cost rose from $51 million to $79 million in the quarter reflecting increased borrowing from $4.5 billion in 2012 to $5.3 billion at the end of the quarter.

JaBroilerseggsSegments | The US operations climbed sharply in sales to $805 million, a 176 percent increase to external parties, contributing to a rise in segment profit to $76 million from $7 million in 2012. The broiler segment sales rose by 14 percent to $3.5 billion as segment profit moved to $234 million versus $189 million in 2012. At Hi Pro division, sales, which include feed and retailing of non-feed products, were flat at $2.56 billion but profit slipped from $230 million to $149 million. Ethanol sales at $248 million in 2013 was lower than for 2012 at $289 million, as profit from the operation ended up at $16 million, a turnaround from a $49 million loss. Other operations, which delivered sales of $200 million and profit of $36 million in 2012, reported a 154 percent sales jump to $309 million in 2013 but profit inched up to only $39 million. Other operations include the sale of feed ingredients, beef products, fish, cattle rearing, processing and co-generation energy supply.

The recent expansion in fertile egg production in Georgia and increased procurement activities is beginning to show positive results as stated by management in their release to shareholders.

Acquisitions | The quarterly results do not include revenue and profit from the just concluded acquisition of England Farms Company, a well-established fertile egg operation based in Arkansas. While this company operates in a different state than the current Georgia one economies of scale can be achieved by merging most of the administrative activities into one thus cutting cost. Specialisation may also be possible as well as savings in shipping cost where each unit can deliver supplies closer to the individual plants. In the release announcing the acquisition of this entity, management stated that it will double existing sales.

JB_farm-pigThe purchase of Hamilton’s Smokehouse will result in an expansion in the volume of products available under the Hamilton Smokehouse brand and will provide opportunities for greater utilization of the Best Dressed Further Processing facilities at Spring Village, St Catherine, management stated. With the processing of Hamilton products to be done in JB existing facilities will mean higher profit margins as most of the former overhead cost of a stand-a-lone operation will no longer exits.

The build out in the 68 percent owned Haiti operations is continuing with increased sales of Haitian produced baby chicks, feed, layer birds, table eggs, and processed chicken.

The group has been spending on capital improvement apart from acquisitions, nevertheless they still had $1.4 billion in investments and cash at bank at end of July.

Insider Call | Jamaica Broilers is still on track to report between $1.50 – $1.80 earnings for the year notwithstanding the almost flat first quarter results and is an IC Insider Buy Rated stock.

Related posts |Jamaica Broilers is buy rated | Another acquisition for Jamaica Broilers | Jamaica Broilers buy US egg company | Jamaica Broilers major profit gains

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results Tagged With: ,

JSE Junior market pushing Jamaica’s economy

September 11, 2013 by

Written by, Dennis St Bernard; Business Contributor, 10-Sep-2013 | At the recently concluded Caribbean Diaspora Business Week in London, one of the consensus from leading Jamaican and Caribbean Businesses was the point that they saw the growing success of the Jamaican Junior Stock Exchange as key catalyst for growth of the Jamaican economy, by the creation of jobs by MSMEs, increase in foreign direct investment (FDIs) and GDP growth, once the present incentives remain intact.

A number of Diaspora Businesses are now actively looking at listing. ‘This could be a major replacement for the reducing remittance to Jamaica, and the stakeholders should now focus on this major opportunity.

JrStockExPhoto“As Jamaica continues to battle with putting together the right growth strategies, we in the business diaspora continue to be excited by the growth of the JSE Junior Market”, sighted St.Bernard, spokesperson for Caribbean Business Diaspora.

“Overseas and Diaspora Business interest in Jamaica are definitely on the increase, the focus is now on conversion” sighted JAMPRO’s UK Regional Manager Laurence Jones.

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With:

JSE: Proven 8% saves day

September 11, 2013 by

Wednesday, 11th September 2013 | With just $7.4 million spent on stocks, Wednesday marked the worse trading day since April 25, a day when only $3.074 million worth of trading took place. Thanks to Proven Investments, it wasn’t the worse day for the year as 1.068 million of the company’s shares valued at $5.43 million crossed the floor.

The market closed with 8 stocks climbing and only 2 down as only stocks of 22 companies were active for a volume of 8.3 million units. At the end of trading, the all Jamaica Index rose by 473.29 to close at 85,834.21 and the main market index closed at 85,331.52 up 268.99, these increases are the fourth straight days of gains. The junior market index slipped by 2.94 to 783.21.

Cable & Wireless came in for increased interest not seen since the strong trading prior to the release of the June quarterly results as it traded 5,755,007 at 17 cents; Carreras seems to be gaining more and more buying interest as traded 31,130 at $47.65, up by 64 cents and so did Caribbean Cement with 327,540 shares, which closed at $2.78 up 28 cents after trading as high as $2.87. Desnoes & Geddes traded 29,200 units to close at $4.51; Grace chipped in with 7,000 units closing at $56.99, up 24 cents; Pan Jam had 11,324 units trading at 15 cents off at $51.05. Scotia Investments price was up 50 cents to $27.50 with 20,205 units. Supreme Ventures price moved up 25 cents to close at $2.80 with only 3,500 units.

JSEIndicesSept11Junior market | AMG Packaging traded 50,571 firm at $4; Blue Power 50,000 units at $9.28 the same price as the day before; Caribbean Cream traded 20,518 units firm at $1.02; Caribbean Producers traded 15,000 firm at $2.10; Consolidated Bakeries exchanged 64,290 and the price remained firm at $1.40. Lasco Distributors put through 207,000 units at the last selling price as on Tuesday at $1.40, so too did Lasco Financial Services that exchanged 53,317 units at $1.25 and Lasco Manufacturing had a good day with 414,655 units to close at $1.60, same price as the day before.

IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator was showing signs of a fluid situation for the market with bids for 9 stocks being higher with 6 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , ,

JSE: Light trading

September 10, 2013 by

Tuesday, 10th September 2013 | In slow and light trading session only 2 million shares worth $12,374,368 traded as 25 companies had activity on the second day of the week. The main indices gained marginally while the junior market fell marginally as 6 stock increased in price and 6 declined.

Main Market|  Carreras is finding support around the $47 level and exchanged 14,000 and closed at $47.01 up a cent at the end of the day. Caribbean Cement regained 30 cents that it recently lost as it closed at $2.50 with only 1,000 shares. Desnoes & Geddes 55,000 firm at $4.50; Gleaner Company swapped 81,637 without change at $1.17; Grace Kennedy exchanged 110,000 at 56.75 off 25 cents; Jamaica Broilers Group saw 105,319 trading up to $5.30 gaining 20 cents at the end. Jamaica Money Market delivered 55,259 at $8.40 down 10 cents. Mayberry Investments accounted for 346,095 units and closed firm at $2.60, while Scotia Group had just 25,881 trading at $21.70 for a 39 cents gain.

JSEIndicesSept10Junior Market | In today’s trading the junior market, AMG Packaging traded 44,688 firm at $4; Blue Power Group 19,652 units closed at $9.28 off 12 cents; Caribbean Producers 160,000 units closed firm at $2.10; Consolidated Bakeries 5,000 units traded firm at $1.40; Dolphin Cove gained $1 to close at $9 based on 5,000 shares; Lasco Distributors 340,300 units closed at $1.40, down 9 cent; Lasco Financial Services 350,429 units closed at $1.30 down 10 cents and Lasco Manufacturing 242,231 units at $1.60, a 5 cents decrease.

IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator remains strong on Tuesday with bids for 9 stocks being higher and 5 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , ,