Thursday, 15th August 2013 | Trading accounted for 15,667,671 units with a value of $102.95 million as 5 stocks increased in price while 8 fell. Jamaica Money Market Brokers was the dominant trade with 9,526,181 units valued $77.16 million as the price closed at $8.10, up 10 cents. However, Caribbean Cement was the star having made major moves over the last two weeks and closed up a cent at $2, after trading as high as $2.20 on the day with 242,535 units. The stock price responded to return of the company to profit in the June quarter.

JSE All Jamaican Composite closed at 85,892.69 an increase of 146.20 points, the JSE Market Index closed at 85,619.26, up 55.10 points and the junior market increased 2.02 to 797.43.

Junior Market | Only 4 stocks traded on the junior market as Jamaican Teas traded moderate volume of 14,432 shares at $4.39, 1 cents less at the end of trading, Lasco Distributors 255,734 units as the stock closed down 9 cents at $1.46, Lasco Financial Services 112,100 shares as the stock closed up 5 cents at $1.50, Lasco Manufacturing just 2,300, closing firm at $1.58.

Main Market | Cable & Wireless lost 2 cents while trading 4.57 million units as the stock closed at 17 cents. The stock is responding to higher loss in the June results than was generated in the year ago quarter. Carreras declined further to $49 losing $1 in trading 24,752 units. The stock continues to reflect investors’ negative reaction to the June quarter results. Grace Kennedy traded 33,682 units at $57 as the stock traded firm, Jamaica Broilers Group traded 76,710 units at $4.96, down 4 cents, Jamaica Producers Group contributed 250,200 units valued at $4.57 million at $18.25 and gained 10 cents. Kingston Wharves traded 82,996 units at $7.70, down 20 cents, National Commercial Bank Jamaica chipped in with 184,224 shares at $19.04, up 54 cents, Pan Jamaican Investment Trust traded 100,277 units at $51.10 as the price slipped 40 cents, Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited lent support with 39,346 units closing at $8.50, Scotia Group traded 266,400 shares as the stock traded and closed at $21.50 up 43 cents, Seprod traded 57,000 units firm at $13.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows that bids for 5 stocks was higher than the last selling price, with 1 stock with an offer that was lower.

Wednesday, 14th August 2013 | Activity was very moderate on the local stock market as just $15.7 million of stocks traded, accounting for 4 million units. 8 stocks advanced in price and 6 declined. All the indices fell marginally with the exception of a rise in the US index. The all Jamaica Composite index shed 153.81 closing at 85,746.49, the main Market Index fell by 87.42 to close at 85,565.16 and the Junior Market Index dipped 2.60 to 795.41.

Cable & Wireless accounted for the bulk of the shares traded with 2.5 million units at 19 cents. Jamaica Producers released results for the June quarter and accounted for the bulk of the amount traded of $5.48 million as the stock gained $1.06 to close at $18.25. Other stocks to trade with reasonable volumes or price changes were, Carreras with 37,751 units to close at $50, off 3 cents but the stock traded as low as $49.25. Desnoes & Geddes traded 41,553 units at $4.61, off 9 cents. Grace Kennedy 25,300 units, firm at $57, National Commercial Bank with 29,962, dropping 70 cents to close at $18.50 but traded as high as $19.20. Scotia Bank 89,729 units at $21.07 and Scotia Investments 66,000 units to close at $28 having traded as low as $27.

Junior market | Activity has moderated since the hectic trading before the end of July with the stock split of the Lasco companies. Eight companies traded in this market as Caribbean Cream traded 154,958 units at $1.07, Lasco Distributors put in 350,600 shares at $1.55, gaining 4 cents, Lasco Financial Services had 46,000 units changing hands, with a closing price of $1.45 and Lasco Manufacturing had 63,108 units trading and closed at $1.58.

One stock C2W Music reached $1, a new low since listing. The company reported results today showing continued losses.

There still has been no trading in Eppley shares since listing, the stock now has a bid at $350 for 449 units.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows that bids for 5 stocks were higher with 1 stock with an offer lower than their last selling price.

After the bell | Pan Jam released lower profits for both the June quarter and year to June. Profit for the June quarter was $486 million attributable to shareholders, compared to $468 million in the 2012 quarter, an increase of 4 percent. For the 6 months ended June this year, profit was $710 million compared to $970 million for 2012, a decrease of 27 percent.

JMMB first quarter results to June show a big jump in profits from ongoing operations of J$832 million and earnings per share of J$0.46 for the quarter ending June 2013, compared to $470 million in 2012.

Seprod enjoyed a bump in profit in the June quarter of $312 million versus $161 million in 2012 and year to June $542 million versus $453 million in 2012. Both periods in 2013 were boosted by a $107 million gain from sales of equities.

Monetgo Ice reported improved results for 2013 of $3.5 million versus a loss of $590,000. Gains from foreign exchange earnings that increased by $3.5 million played a big role in the improvement.

Cable & Wireless reported increased loss for the first quarter to June amounting to $826 million compared to $430 million in 2012. The worsening position is due to increased spend in certain areas and reduced revenues offset by some areas of cost savings.

Jamaica Producers reported after tax profit due to the company’s stockholders of $73 million in the June quarter against $46 million in the 2012 period and for the six months $158.5 million versus $112 in 2012.

Dolphin Cove reported profit for the six months to June of $221 million compared to $195 million in 2012 and for the three months to June $103 million versus $84 million.

Proven Investments net profit after tax grew to US$1,033,815 from US$845,876 in 2012 June quarter.

KLE Group is reporting a worsened loss position for both the June quarter and year to date with a loss of $36 million in six months while in the 2012 period the loss was $9 million.

C2W Music reported a loss of US$345,855 for the six months to June 2013. For the similar period in 2012, the loss was US$131,284. There was just US$1,803 income for the period.

Tuesday, 13th August 2013 | The market turned around today at the close as 17 stocks advanced to 6 declining with all the indices with trades enjoying gains, a respite from two days of healthy declines. Cable & Wireless was the dominant trade in terms of volume as stocks of 27 companies traded 11 million units valued at $39.16 million.

Main market trades of note | The all Jamaica Index gained 529.59 points closing at 85,900.30, the JSE market index gained 300.99 to close at 85,651.58. Investors gobbled up 8.35 million Cable & Wireless shares as the stock price closed 3 cents up at 19 cents. At the end of trading there were just over a 12 million units on offer at 20 cents each while bids are in for 7 million units at 18 cents.  Caribbean Cement Company exchanged 78,372 units at $1.85 as the price gained 19 cents. Demand for Carreras has faded and only 18,000 units traded with price closing at $50 but there is only about 30,000 units on the bid side at the end of trading. Kingston Wharves traded 103,302 units at $7.60 closing up 8 cents. Mayberry Investments traded 183,686 shares at $2.60. National Commercial Bank had a big trade with 1.63 million units between $1920 and $19.52 but the price settled at $19.20 at the end up 65 cents. Sagicor Life traded 56,000 at $8.50.

Jamaica Money Market lost 65 cents while trading 5,173 units and closed at $7.85, Grace Kennedy gained 50 cents while trading 11,794 units to close at $57.

Junior market | It was a very light day for trading on the junior market with just 8 companies trading. Access financial lost 31 cents as the stock closed at $8.20 with 87,732 units. Caribbean Producers had 89,564 shares trading to close at $2.04. Lasco Financial Services dropped 6 cents to close at $1.43. Honey Bun traded a small volume but the price slipped back 50 cents to close at $3.50.

There still has been no trading in Eppley shares since listing and the stock has no bids or offers at the close of trading.

IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows that bids for 5 stocks were higher with 3 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.

Monday, 12th August 2013 | Investors not only snapped up a large portion of Cable & Wireless on Friday but took out the remnants of the stock that was on offer on Friday at 15 cents and drove the price to 16 cents at the end of trading. Investors bought 12,506,365 shares, most of it the moment the market opened, valued at $2 million. Demand that was non-existent from June 26 suddenly came alive last week. From Wednesday to Friday, 15.8 million shares traded with buyers picking up 11.5 million on the last day of the week.

Unlike Friday when there were not a great deal of bids, at the end of trading today there were 5.8 million units on bid at 17 cents while offers were around 19 cents. At the end of trade, there were bids for 23.6 million units at 15-17 cents and 9.4 million shares on offer at 19 cents where some volume can be found.

Look behind C&W | Part of the stimuli for the sudden interest could be tied to the release of information by Cable & Wireless Communications on the 25th of July indicating that whilst it is early days, they have seen a pick-up in customer numbers in Jamaica following the launch of a competitive new price plan. As noted at the release of the full year figures, market conditions in the rest of the Caribbean remain difficult, particularly in the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados. Interestingly, no mention was made of the difficulties in Jamaica. The major cost reduction plan announced at the full year is proceeding as anticipated and they are already seeing the benefits of the restructuring performed last year with operating expenses in the Caribbean down 5 percent against the first quarter in the prior year. Following the outsourcing of certain field force functions in Jamaica, they have seen an improvement in installation and repair times.

Other big trades | The next big trade was National Commercial Bank with 3 million units changing hands valued at $57.5 million as the price closed at $18.55, down 55 cents. Interestingly, NCB Capital Markets sold the bulk of the stocks with several brokers buying. Carreras came in with 240,000 units at a value of $12 million as the stock lost to close at $50.10, down 42 cents.

A total of 21.29 million units traded in the market at a value of $106.3 million as the price of 9 stocks advanced and 13 declined.

Main market trades of note  | The all Jamaica Index shed 978.24 points (Friday 542.03) to close at 85,370.71 and the JSE market index fell 555.98 (Friday 308.06) to close at 85,906.57.

Caribbean Cement traded 65,500 shares and gained 15 cents to close at $1.66, a 52 weeks high. The bid closed at $1.66 for 17,000 units after trading as high as $1.85 and had an offer of 500 shares at $2.12, but there is virtually no supply in the market close to the offer price and only a few close to $3. Gleaner Company traded 1,853,251 units at $1.19, an increase of 3 cents for a value of $2.2 million. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 423,340 units valued at $3.6 million, the last traded price was $8.50, a gain of 50 cents. Pan Jam lost 63 cents to close at $51.12 with only 801 units changing hands. Sagicor Life traded 70,333 units to close at $8.40 down 30 cents and Scotia Group traded 51,680 to close at $21.06, off by 2 cents. Seprod fell $1.75 to $13 with only 1,100 shares trading.

Junior market | Stocks of 9 junior market companies traded as 2 advanced and 3 declined. Access Financial Services traded 67,570 units at $8.51 but traded as high as $9. Caribbean Creams traded 34,000 at $1.05 at the close but had a bid of $1.07 for 200,000 units at the end of trading. Caribbean Producers produced a volume of 154,958 units and closed trading at $2.03. Jamaican Teas traded 175,538 units at $4.35, slipping 5 cents on the day. Lasco Financial traded 114,784 shares firm at $1.49, down 3 cents. Lasco Manufacturing closed at $1.53, down 3 cents while trading 331,850 units.

Eppley shares that were listed on July 29, have still not traded and have no bids or offers at the close of trading.

Proven Investment ordinary shares traded 2,007,350 units valued at US$233,882, at 12 cents each.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer sentiment indicator shows that bids for 6 stocks were higher and offers of 2 were lower than their last selling price.

After the bell | Proven Investments posted net profit after tax of US$1,033,815 for the June quarter versus US$845,876 in 2012. Earnings per share was 0.35 US cents.

Guardian Holdings reported TT$36.571 million compared to TT$98.7 million and for the six months TTS$106.4 million down from $195.6 million in 2012.