JSE: Scotia Group pushes index but…

July 15, 2013 by

Monday, 16th July 2013 |  The all Jamaica Index climbed 1,673 points to close at 89,848.46 points as Scotia Group traded as high as $23.84 — the major factor pushing the index. However, the stock closed trading at $22, the same closing price as Friday, which suggests there could be a major correction in the upward move on Tuesday.

The JSE composite index closed at 87,894.71, up 950.57. Scotia was not the only stock to affect the indices as trading was low at only 5.9 million shares valued at $22 million. Sagicor Investments put on $1 to close at $18 and only traded 1,500 units. Carib Cement put on 20 cents as 4 million shares traded at $1 each for a total sum of $4 million. Scotia Investments put on 50 cents to close at $26.51 and Seprod put on 49 cents to close at $15 both with very insignificant volumes. Scotia Group was mostly gobbled up by Scotia Investments who traded 533,000 shares for a value of $12.65 million.

The advance decline ratio was slightly in favour of advancers with 9 advancing and 8 advancing.

Junior market | Junior market activity has cooled for the time being as 7 stocks traded with moderate price moves except for a 69 cents drop in Access Financial Services as the stock closed at $8.36 with 10,000 shares trading. Lasco Financial traded and closed at an all-time high of $1.40 cents, the volume traded was 59.700 units. Lasco Manufacturing traded as high as $1.70 but could not hold as the 653,878 shares landed the last selling price at $1.65. The junior market slipped again to 807.43 down 8.61 points.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows a weakening in market momentum with bid for only 1 stock higher than the last selling price and one stock having an offer lower than the last selling price.

JSEIndicesJul15

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

TTSE: Citizens IPO main attraction

July 15, 2013 by

Monday, 15th July 2013 | Trading on the T&T stock Exchange today was paltry with 170,869 shares trading valued at just $914,642 but the big news in the market is the opening of the Citizens Bank of Trinidad IPO, which went on sale at $22 per share at a PE of 11 in an attempt to raise $1.1 billion on behalf of the major shareholder of the bank. Some comments out of Trinidad suggest that the shares will be avidly taken up.

Market activity resulted in 11 securities trading of which 3 advanced, 2 declined and 6 traded firm.

One of IC Insider’s buy rated stock,  One Caribbean Media moved to a new 52 week high as it closed up by 18 cents to end the day at $17.60 while trading 4,000 shares and another buy rated stock, Caribbean Cement, traded up by 5 cents to $1.15 as 79,581 shares changed hands for a value of $90,391.

Scotia Investments fell 3 cents to close at $1.87 with a volume of 50,414 shares being traded for $94,304. Guardian Holdings contributed 13,377 shares with a value of $214,032, while Sagicor Financial Corporation added 6,177 shares valued at $38,297.

Clico Investment Fund was the only active security on the Mutual Fund Market, posting a volume of 15,990 shares valued at $359,775.00 as the share closed at $22.50 without a change in price.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice market indicator shows that bids for no stock was higher with 3 stock having an offer lower than the last selling price.

TTSEJul15

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers, Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: , ,

First Citizens’ $1B IPO opens today

July 15, 2013 by

The government of Trinidad & Tobago, through the holding company for First Citizens Bank Group, launches a billion dollar Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares to reduce its ownership in the bank. The issue opens today, Monday 15th July, and when completed will be listed on the T&T Stock Exchange. The offer of 48,495,665 shares, approximately 19.3 percent of the total shareholding of the bank, is expected to rake in $1.1 billion before expenses for the Government of Trinidad. The issue has an offer price of TT$22 per share for sale to the public. The proceeds will go to the holding company for Citizens and is expected to be paid over to the government.

Citizens, a banking and finance company, has total capital of $6 billion and total assets of more than $37 billion. When compared to the two other banks listed on the Trinidad Stock Exchange, Republic has capital of $7.94 billion and total assets of $55 billion while Scotia Bank has capital of $3.2 billion and total assets of $18 billion as of March this year.

First Citizens Brokerage & Advisory Services (a subsidiary of First Citizens Investment Services) is the Lead Broker for the Offer for Sale.

First_Citizensbuilding150x150THE COMPANY | The First Citizens Group is a financial service organization headquartered in Trinidad & Tobago that offers a range of retail, corporate, capital markets, investment management, wealth management, asset management, trustee and brokerage services. The provision of corporate, commercial and retail loans, deposit and other retail services, including credit card accounts, internet, and telephone banking is conducted in Trinidad & Tobago via a network of 26 full service banking locations, one foreign exchange bureau, seven operations centres and 96 ATM machines. In Barbados, these services are provided via five branches, one lending centre and eight ATM locations. In Costa Rica, the provision of corporate loans is done via a centralised corporate banking team that covers both Costa Rica and the Central American region.

COMPANY HISTORY | First Citizens Bank was formed in March 1993 and acquired, The Trinidad Co-operative Bank, Worker’s Bank and National Commercial Bank. At that time, 62 percent of its loan portfolio was in arrears. In the 10 years to 2003, First Citizens Bank grew its profits to TTD233 million, doubled its asset base to TTD6.1 billion and had attained international credit ratings of BBB- and A-3 by S&P and Moody’s, respectively.

In 2009, First Citizens acquired Caribbean Money Market Brokers Limited, now First Citizens Investment Services Limited, a full service securities company with offices in Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, St. Vincent and St. Lucia. In January 2012, a representative banking office was opened  in Costa Rica as the Bank’s first entrance into Central America and in August 2012, the Group continued its expansion with the acquisition of Butterfield Bank in Barbados, now called First Citizens Bank (Barbados) Limited.

BALANCE SHEET & PROFITS | At the end of March this year, the bank loaned out $13. 8 billion, an increase over the March 2012 of $11.2 billion. Customer deposits climbed faster to $26.7 billion versus $22.9 billion. Profit before tax grew to $388.7 million, $40 million or 11.5 percent over the $348.7 million earned for the corresponding period last year. Profit after tax amounted to $306.4 million. For the 2012 fiscal year, the bank earned profits of $446 million giving a return on equity of 8 percent and return on assets of 1.58 percent. Return on equity is around 11 percent for 2013.

TTSEDailyTRading280x150Citizens is underperforming its two major competitors in a number of areas. Importantly, two critical measures tell the tale as to where the bank sits with its peers. Scotia Bank’s return on equity is 18 percent and return on assets 3 percent while Republic Bank is 14.6 percent return on equity and 2.25 percent return on assets. Republic sells at a PE of 15 and Scotia Bank at 22.5 times 2013 earnings and Ansa Merchant Bank has a PE of 19. The lower numbers of PE for Citizens suggest there is much room for the stock price to climb after the shares list with their PE at only 11.

The performance of the loan portfolio is a matter of concern. Data shows that there is not much impairment in the loan portfolio. However, it is noted that the level of loans that are past due increased markedly in 2012 over 2011 from $1.96 billion to $2.99 billion. “Corporate past due amounts” increased by $800 million, an indication that things may not be a sanguine as the profit figures are suggesting even as the provision for loans losses in the March six months period was much less than what was provided for in the comparable half-year results in 2012.

DIVIDEND POLICY | The dividend policy of the Issuer will be to distribute funds surplus to the operating capital and strategic requirements of the Group, as determined by the Directors, with an annual target dividend pay-out percentage range between 45 to 55 percent of net profit after tax.

FirstCitizensFinData

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results, Initial Public Offers, Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: , ,

Watch and buy this week

July 15, 2013 by
Add your HTML code here...

Monday, 15th July 2013 | What’s happening in the markets this week? We’ll be tracking the Stocks To Watch in our headlights for trading activity and price changes.

Our analysts’ Buy Rated seal of approval has been extended to Access Financial Services, a stock that trades on Jamaica’s Junior Market. Read our post dated 27th June, 2013 about this money maker ‘Big payoff for Access owners‘.

Meanwhile AMG Packaging has lost some of its sparkle and is no longer Buy Rated. Our post ‘AMG is investing for tomorrow‘ gives an in-depth report on their recent published results.

Better than a broker’s ‘buy’ recommendation, IC Insider has no vested interest in any stock transaction or conflict of interest. Our research is backed by published reports of the company’s performance and insights of future earnings that can be found at ICInsider.com. The final decision to buy, or not, is your personal choice.

To search for published company results on IC Insider, please use ‘Search IC Insider’ and enter the company name, in full or in part.

StockWatch_BuyRatedJul15

Filed Under: Company News, Stocks to watch Tagged With: ,

FX: Buying up, selling stable

July 12, 2013 by

Friday, 12th July 2013 | Buying of forex on Friday was greater than amounts sold by $3.5 million as $27 million in US dollar equivalents was purchased by authorised dealers, US$2.7 million more than on Thursday. The equivalent of US$23.5 million was sold to end users, slightly more than the US$23.3 million sold on Thursday. The amount of US dollar currency purchased, was US$22.4 million while US$21.5 million was sold. There was moderately more Canadian dollars and a lot more Pound Sterling purchased than sold. In fact £1.87 million was purchased and only £349,000 was sold.

The selling rate for the US dollar inched up 3 cents to close at $101.80. At the same time the buying rate edged up by 1 cent, closing at $100.97. The highest buying rate for the US dollar fell by 80 cents to close at $102.40. There was no change in the highest selling rate nor the lowest buying rate, but the lowest selling rate decreased by $15.55, the same as the increase the day before and fell back to $83.50.

The buying rate of the Canadian moved up by 9 cents to $96.57 and the selling rate moved up by 55 cents closing at $98.15. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar climbed by 15 cents to close at $98.30 and the highest selling rate remained as it was on Thursday. The lowest buying rate moved up by 8 cents to $78.02 and the lowest selling rate move up by 10 cents to close at $93.50.

The buying rate of the Pound fell by 37 cents on the day to $151.36 and the selling rate rose by 7 cents to close at $151.66. The highest buying rate for the British Pound increased by 50 cents to close at $154.50. The lowest buying rate increased by $1.46 to $124.38, the highest selling rate moved up by 43 cents to $158.90 and the lowest selling rates increased by $1.00 to $147.80.

July and August are months for increased inflows as the number of tourists into the country rise well above the numbers for May and June. The likely increased inflows could impact the rates.

FX_TRADE+Currency+Jul12

FX_TRADE+HighLow+Jul12

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

JSE: Market positioning for rally

July 12, 2013 by

Friday, 12 July 2013 | In Friday’s activity, stocks of 26 companies traded 8.5 million units valued at $53.32 million, quite a bit more than Thursday’s $30 million. The advance decline ratio remained even as the prices of 9 stocks each moved up and down. All the indices that had actively traded stocks posted moderate gains by the end of trading. There were no changes in US dollar cross listed indices and no trades taking place in these stocks. Proven Investments Preference shares was the most dominant traded with 4.91 million shares worth $25 million.

Trades of note Main Market | The all Jamaica Index put on 468.82 points to close at 88,174.96 and the JSE market index moved up by 266.31 to close at 86,944.14. Sagicor Life, which accounted for1.185 million shares valued at $10.14 million, was the other dominant trader with the stock trading between $8.50 and $8.60 before closing at $8.50. The bulk of the shares were crosses executed by Pan Caribbean Financial Services. Scotia Group traded 223,000 shares valued at $4.885 million as the stock closed the day at $22, up 90 cents. Pan Jamaican Investment Trust traded 53,705 shares valued at $2.77 million between $51.11 and $52 but closed unchanged at $51.11. Grace Kennedy traded down $2.29 at $57.21 as 81,350 units traded valued at $4.79 million.

Junior market | 7 stocks in the junior market traded as 3 advanced and 3 declined. Blue Power traded 216,016 units valued a $2.18 million as the stock traded between $10.10 and $10.15 before closing at $10.10. At the close there were 100,000 Blue Power shares on offer at $10.50. Lasco Distributors traded 476,710 shares between $1.55 and $1.60 but closed at $1.55 off 5 cents. Lasco Manufacturing traded 807,469 units between $1.60 and $1.70 and closed at $1.66 and Lasco Financial traded up 5 cents to close at $1.35 with 138,800 units. Paramount closed at $3.50 up 20 cents with only 5,000 shares trading. There was no stock on offer at the close. KLE Group closed at $2.60, an all-time low, as 30,000 shares traded off by 10 cents.

Market intelligence | Lasco Distributors has 1.14 million units on offer at $1.60 with a bid for 1,740 units at $1.55. Good support is at $1.40. Lasco Manufacturing and Lasco Financial seem to have limited supply. Cable & Wireless selling continues, but the sellers seem to be holding out for prices at 14 cents or more as the amounts offered at 15 cents remain at 29 million shares. There has been very little change since last week while the quantities for the few bids that are in have not increased much. Desnoes & Geddes has 1 million shares on offer at $5.18 along with 200,000 at $5 as reasonable demand is at $4.70. RJR still has a bid at $1.23 for 4.9 million units, there has not been much change to the supply. Good support exists for Sagicor Life at $8.40, while supply is limited below $9.30. Carreras support is pretty good at $53.50 and more bids have come in for the stock near to $54 as supply of the stock declines.

Grace Kennedy’s supply of 700,000 units at $61 still remains as a barrier for upward price movement for the time being as demand has declined sharply leading to the fall in the price today. The price could fall more unless Grace’s buy-back program kicks in as there is very few serious bids in for the stock close to the recent selling price. There are good bids in the market for JMMB’s stock between $7.85 and just over $8, decent supply is listed at $10.50 and above. Scotia Group supply is surely on the decline with some supply above $22. Scotia Investments sold today in Trinidad for the equivalent of $30.19 with the price there looking as if it will move up further as investors in that market look for income generating assets. At the present price, the stock would be yielding 6 percent in a market where long term yields are under two percent.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market indicator shows that bids for 6 stocks were higher with 1 stock having an offer lower than the last selling price. This is the strongest this signal has been since the last week of June, an indication that the market could be resuming the upward momentum in the days or weeks ahead.

Insider Trades | A related party to Mayberry Investments Limited purchased a total of 995,602 of the company’s shares during the period July 4 – 9, 2013 and a person connected to a senior officer of Trinidad Cement Limited purchased 108,000 of the company’s shares on July 8, 2013. These could be two bullish indicators for the shares of these two companies.

JSEIndicesJul12

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

JSE share allotment

July 12, 2013 by

The Jamaica Stock Exchange announced the formula for the allotment of shares in the recent issue of 38,250,000 ordinary shares which was oversubscribed by 60 percent. The IPO received 196 applications for the shares costing approximately J$160.663 million at the price of J$2.85 per each. The issue which was opened on Friday, July 5 2012 closed on Monday, 8 July 2012 after it was oversubscribed on the first day of issue.

All Reserved Share applicants will receive 100% of the amount of the Shares they applied for. Applicants for the general pool, who applied to receive shares of 500,000 units or less, will receive 100% allocation. This applies to 93 applicants, 6 applicants who applied for more than 500,000 shares will have the excess allocated on a pro-rated basis.

The shares are expected to start trading next week.

Read more about the Jamaica Stock Exchange IPO at JSE: 38m shares for IPO published 22 May 2013

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News, Initial Public Offers, JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: ,

TTSE: TCL rolls on as trading picks up

July 12, 2013 by

Friday, 12th July 2013 | The Trinidad stock market saw greater level of trading on the last day of the week as 15 stocks traded with a volume of 938,000 units valued at $4.16 million as 5 stocks advanced, 2 declined and 8 traded firm.

Trinidad Cement, an IC Insider buy rated stock, remains the main focus on the exchange in today’s trading as the stock traded 590,300 shares, more than twice that of 230,565 shares on Thursday. The value of today’s trade amounted to $649,327 compared to Thursday‘s valued of $242,088. The stock gained 5 cents to $1.10 as the stock continues to respond to the return to profitability as reported by the March quarterly results and the low valuation. The bid for TCL is at $1.10 for 32,794 units and there was no stock on offer suggesting that there are more gains ahead for the stock.

Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 228,000 shares for $114,000. Guardian Holdings contributed 46,202 shares with a value of $739,232 as the price increased by 1 cents to end the day at $16, while ANSA McAL added 19,573 shares valued at $1,301,017 as the price fell 3 cents to close at $66.47. Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation traded 10,000 shares, which increased 9 cents to close at $3.85. Conversely, Unilever Caribbean traded 9,135 units and lost 15 cents to close at $54.  Clico Investment Fund posted 4,400 shares valued at $99,000 as the price remained at $22.50. Sagicor Financial Corporation added 17,560 shares firm, at $6.20.

Scotia Investment traded at $1.90 the equivalent of J$30.19 well over the J$26.50 bid price on the Jamaica Stock exchange. The stock traded just 3,924 units and gained 5 cents but there was no stock on offer to fill the 49,904 units on the buy side at $1.87 each. West Indian Tobacco Company that has been on a tear in recent weeks, remained stuck below $118 as it traded 2,592 shares at $117.51.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows that bids for 2 stocks were higher with 5 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.

Watch these stocks next week | Trinidad Cement, Scotia Investments, Point Lisas Industrial Port Development, One Caribbean Media and Unilever Caribbean.

TTSEJul12

TTSE_PE_Ratio_Jul13

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

FX: US dollar slips back a little

July 11, 2013 by

Thursday, 11th July 2013 |  There was $24.3 million in US dollar equivalent purchased by authorised dealers on Thursday and they sold the equivalent of US$23.3 million to end users, well down on the US$31.6 million sold on Wednesday. The amount of US dollar currency purchased was US$20.2 million and US$19.6 million was sold. There was moderately more Canadian dollars and Pound Sterling purchased than sold.

The selling rate for the US dollar fell 2 cents from to close at $101.77. At the same time the buying rate edged down by 5 cents, closing at $100.95. The highest buying rate for the US dollar climbed by $1 to close at $103.20. There was no change in the highest selling rate nor the lowest buying rate, but the lowest selling rate increased by $15.55 to $99.05.

The US dollar fell against most currencies in light of the Fed in the USA indicating that they intent to keep interest rates low until possibly 2015. The change in value affected the conversion rates of the Jamaican currency against the Pound and the Canadian dollar in Thursday’s trading.

Buying of the Canadian jumped $2.04 to $96.48 and the selling rate moved up by 59 cents while closing at $97.59. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar climbed by 65 cents to close at $98.15 and the highest selling rate moved up 11 cents. The lowest buying rate remained the same as for Wednesday at $77.94 and the lowest selling rates move up by 40 cents to close at $93.40.

The buying rate of the Pound went up by $1.23 on the day to $151.73 and the selling rate rose by $1.69 cents to close at $151.89. The highest buying rate for the British Pound increased by $1.60 to close at $154, the lowest buying rate increased by 41 cents to $122.92. The highest selling rate moved down by $3.69 to $158.47 and the lowest selling rates decreased by $1.70 to $146.80.

FX_TRADE+Currency+Jul11

FX_TRADE+HighLow+Jul11

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

JSE: Market gives back but not much

July 11, 2013 by

Thursday, 11th July 2013 | Sagicor Life was the dominant stock in Thursday’s trading as 1.59 million units with a value of $13. 49 million were traded by Sagicor Investments in crosses that saw the stock dip to $8.45. Next in volume was junior market listing, Lasco Financial, with 5.46 million units trading between $1.30 and $1.31 valued at $7.1 million. Over 5.3 million units were bought by Mayberry Investments on behalf of clients.

In the day’s activity, 26 stocks accounted for 10.5 million units at a value at $30.1 million. The advance decline ratio was 5 advancing to 4 declining but all the indices moved down moderately with the exception of the US dollar index and the cross listed that had no trades.

Main Market | The all Jamaica Index lost 528.73  points to close at 87,706.14 and the JSE market index fell by 300.90 closing at 86,677.83.  Jamaica Broilers traded 72,000 units to close at $5.10 down 10 cents, NCB traded 20,000 at $19.50 and D&G traded 41,600 at $5. Jamaica Producers gained 49 cents to close at $20 with small volume traded.

Junior market | 12 stocks in the junior market traded as the index closed down 9.93 points to 814.85 traded. Access Financial traded just 1,000 shares and gained 55 cents to close at an all-time high of $9.05. Cargo Handlers traded at a 52 weeks high of $13 but with just 500 units, the stock gained $2 in the process. Blue Power traded up by 15 cents to close at $10.15, just over 23,000 shares changed hands. Lasco Distributors closed down 10 cents as 543,000 shares traded at a value of $871,000 and Lasco Manufacturing fell 5 cents to $1.65 with 1.66 million shares trading at a value of $2.75 million. AMG Packaging with came out with third quarter results today showing a reduction in the latest quarter versus that of 2012, but higher nine months results than for the similar period last year, traded 187,6000 units and closed at $4.25 with no change in price. 75,000 shares that were on offer for weeks at $4.70 were sold today at $4.25 each at 11 am which seems to have been influenced by the results.

Proven Investment Preference shares traded 507,000 units valued at $2.58 million, there was no trades in the ordinary shares. There is still no stock on offer at the close as was the case yesterday. There is a bid for more than 200,000 units at US$.115 per share.

Market intelligence | Cable & Wireless selling continues, but the sellers seem to be holding out for prices at 14 cents or more as the amounts offered at 15 cents remain in excess of 29 million shares, while the few quantities for the few bids have not increased much. RJR still has a bid at $1.23 for 4.9 million units and there has not been much change to the supply. Good support exists for Sagicor Life at $8.40, Carreras support is pretty good at $53.50 and more bids have come in for the stock close to $54. Demand seems to have pulled back for Jamaica Broilers, even as the supply does not seem overwhelming. Grace Kennedy supply of 700,000 units at $61 still remains as a barrier for upward price movement for the time being. Mayberry’s sell order of Blue Power supply has fallen to 216,000 units at $10.50 as 7,400 units were traded today at that price. There are good bids in the market for JMMB’s stock between $7.85 and just over $8, decent supply is listed at $10.50 and above.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows that bids for 5 stocks were higher with 4 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price. This fluidity here is an indication of cautiousness currently in the market.

New issue IPO | Eppley limited a subsidiary of Musson Group, is the latest company to make an appeal to the public with an initial public offering contained in a prospectus just released today. The shares are clearly not for the average investors, with a price of $277 each when it opens on Monday 22 July 2013 and only 218,999 shares will be available for subscription to raise $82.6 million.  The broker is Proven Wealth Management. IC Insider will have a full assessment of this offering as well as the results for AMG Packaging.

JSEIndicesJul11

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