The Main Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange seems to be stuck around the 320,000 points level and needs a catalyst to moving it.
NCB Financial was expected to have done so but they their full year’s results although up strongly was already baked into the price as such it never moved the market much as investors were very constrained in trading it on Friday.
In trading, 22 securities changed hands with the market indices rising moderately at the close, as 6 securities rose, 8 declined and 8 traded firm with 5,777,201 units valued at $107,680,730 trading while 2 securities traded in the US dollar market.
In the main activity, Berger Paints finished trading at $15, with 57,707 shares changing hands, Cable & Wireless closed at $1.05, with 136,005 shares, Caribbean Cement finished with a loss of $1.99 at $31.01, with 4,936 stock units trading. Carreras settled at $11.50, with 469,478 units, Grace Kennedy ended with a loss of 20 cents at $42.50, while 17,221 shares traded, Jamaica Broilers fell 40 cents to $18.50, with 53,740 stock units, Jamaica Producers ended with a loss of 60 cents at $15.20, with 4,061,507 units changing hands. Jamaica Stock Exchange fell 1 cent to $6.99, with 53,928 shares, JMMB Group finished $1 higher to end at a 52 weeks’ high of $30.50, with 58,275 stock units, Kingston Wharves traded with a loss of 10 cents at $32.50, with 70,928 units, Mayberry Investments traded at $5, with 139,224 shares. NCB Financial Group concluded trading $1.15 higher at $108, with 160,919 shares, 138 Student Living finished trading at $6, with 8,500 shares, 1834 Investments settled with a loss of 5 cents at $1.30, with 1,281 stock units, PanJam Investment finished at $43, with 2,000 units, Portland JSX ended 45 cents higher at $9.10, with 2,000 shares, Pulse Investments ended trading at $1.80, with 3,048 shares. Sagicor Group traded 2 cents higher at $38, with 226,496 units, Sagicor Real Estate Fund ended at $15, with 7,000 shares, Scotia Group concluded trading with a gain of 36 cents to $51.86, with 87,257 stock units, Seprod ended $1.99 higher at $30, with 828 units and Supreme Ventures concluded trading with a loss of 13 cents at $11.77, with 154,923 shares. In the US equity market, JMMB Group 6 percent preference share ended trading with 15,000 units $at US$1.121 and Proven Investments ordinary share traded 14,583 stock units at 23 US cents.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
JSE main market ends with losses Wednesday
More stocks closed with gains than with losses, on Wednesday on the Main Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange as 25 securities changed hands, with 12 advancing, 8 declined and 5 traded firm as 6,096,729 units valued at $100,198,639 traded.
Price movements resulted in moderate fall in the market indices at the close.
In the main activity, Barita Investments traded with a loss of 2 cents at $8.88, with 28,307 units, Berger Paints concluded trading 50 cents higher at $15, with 19,008 shares, Cable & Wireless closed with a loss of 1 cent at $1.09, with 1,256,447 shares, Caribbean Cement traded $1 higher at $33, with 14,395 stock units. Carreras concluded trading at $11.50, with 1,097,819 units, Ciboney Group settled 2 cents higher at $0.17, with 4,000 shares, Grace Kennedy finished at $43, with 32,084 shares, Jamaica Broilers finished trading with a loss of 9 cents at $18.90, with 22,921 stock units. Jamaica Producers traded 20 cents higher at $15.80, with 32,668 units, Jamaica Stock Exchange finished trading 1 cent higher at $7, with 35,412 shares, JMMB Group concluded trading 14 cents higher at $29.50, with 199,909 shares, Kingston Wharves ended trading with a loss of 50 cents at $32.50, with 3,491 units. Mayberry Investments closed with a loss of 5 cents at $5, with 1,000 shares, NCB Financial Group traded 1 cent higher at $108.01, with 279,573 shares changing hands, 1834 Investments finished 5 cents higher at $1.35, with 400 stock units, PanJam Investment concluded trading with a loss of 45 cents at $42.55, with 21,820 units, Radio Jamaica ended trading 2 cents higher at $1.15, with 3,500 stock units. Sagicor Group settled 40 cents higher at $38, with 54,460 units, Sagicor Real Estate Fund concluded trading 20 cents higher at $15.20, with 546,470 shares, Scotia Group traded with a loss of 80 cents at $51, with 502,155 stock units, Seprod finished trading with a loss of 75 cents at $29, with 103,599 units and Supreme Ventures concluded trading 50 cents higher at $13, with 426,660 shares. In the main market preference segment, Jamaica Money Market Brokers7.25% preference share ended 14 cents higher at $2.49, Jamaica Money Market Brokers7.5% preference share ended 14 cents higher at $1.85, with 399,000 stock units, JMMB Group 7.5% preference share ended at $1.10, with 1 million stock units and Proven Investments traded 45,180 units in the US dollar market unchanged at 57.51 US cents.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Sagicor Group reports solid results
Sagicor Group continues to deliver reasonable growth in profit albeit from a modest increase in assets that grew 4 percent over the twelve months to September to reach $363.26 billion.
But things were not a great in all aspects of the group as the overall bottom-line growth would suggests. While the Individual Lines segment, generated profits that more than doubled that of the 2016 period, rising by 105 percent, the Employee benefits segment, delivered just 21 percent better returns than in 2016 but investment and commercial bank suffered moderate decline in profit of 2 and 6 percent respectively, while other operations turned a profit of $289 million into a loss of $197 million.
Profit for the nine-month period climbed 23 percent to $9.08 billion, than the $7.39 billion recorded last year while it grew modestly by percent 9.3 percent to $3.43 billion. Revenues for the nine months rose 18 percent to $53.53 billion and for the quarter it jumped by a strong 42 percent to $23.18 billion 2016 from $16.3 billion in 2016. The earnings per stock unit are 88 cents for the quarter and $2.34 for the year to date compared to $1.89 for last year. For the 2016 the group earned $2.90 per share which should end up around $3.50 per share by year end and importantly, even higher in 2018.
The big rise in cost has been changes in insurance and annuity liabilities moving from $2.6 billion in the 2016 quarter to $8.3 billion and from $10.8 billion to $13.3 billion in the September quarter.
Sagicor traded on Tuesday on the Jamaica Stock Exchange and ended at $37.60.