Friday, 18th October 2013 | The second week of big declines ended on Friday with another day of slippage for the two main market indices. Reports from the brokerage community have confirmed to IC Insider that Lascelles Superannuation Fund is liquidating the equities they hold for some noted companies that has caused prices to decline. It was tough week as the Jamaica stock market declined just about every day, a continuation from the sharp decline of the week before,

In a very slow day on the Jamaica Stock Market, trading took place for 14,927,180 shares valued at $131.3 million as the market indices saw another day of decline in the Main Market index of 268.90 to close at 81,806.11, while the all Jamaica index which closed at 79,631.26 fell by 473.13. The junior market has held up well in the past weeks but saw the index inching down by 0.92 to 753.84. There was trading in stocks of 26 companies, with 6 rising and 9 falling and 14 remained unchanged.

Trading resulted in Carreras exchanging 12,025 at $40, up 50 cents; Desnoes & Geddes 86,166 to close up 50 cents at $5; Grace Kennedy 106,549 units but fell to $55.65, off by $1.36; Jamaica Broilers had strong volume of 8,017,062 but at a depressed prices to close at $4.17, up 7 cents; Jamaica Producers 106,100 units resulted in a 25 cents price cut to close at $18.25; Mayberry Investments 22,804 units resulted in the price closing firm at $2.50; National Commercial Bank had a good volume of 3,994,816 units but ended  firm at $18; Pan Jamaican Investment Trust had only 16,350 units to close at $48.01, down 10 cents; Scotia Group 505,270 units closing firm at $20; Scotia Investment traded 2,502, lost 49 cents to close at $26.01; Seprod 323,036 units to close firm at $13 and Proven Investments 8% preference 1,083,600 units firm at $5.09.

Junior Market | Access Financial Services had a small volume of 2,258 but closed at $8.40 up 12 cents; Caribbean Cream still struggling to move above the listing price of the IPO earlier in the year had 38,140 units closing at $1.02, up 2 cents; newly listed Caribbean Flavours exchanged 258,997 closed firm at $2.70; Lasco Distributors had 25,320 units to close firm at $1.50; Lasco Financial Services 157,900 units resulted in a closing price of $1.13, a decline of 5 cents; and Lasco Manufacturing lost ground with 90,700 units in closing at $1.45 down 5 cents.

IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed slight improvement in market sentiment over Thursday with the bids for 3 stocks being higher and 5 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Thursday, 17th October 2013 | In a very slow day on the Jamaica Stock Market. Trading took place for 5,330,792 shares valued at $73,871,824 as the market indices saw another day of decline in the Main Market index of 393.47 to close at 82,075.01 while the all Jamaica index which closed at 80,104.39, fell by 692.31. The junior market index bucked the general of trend of a weak market and moved up by 5.96 to 754.76. Only stocks of 22 companies traded, with 6 rising and 7 falling.

Main Market | Carreras, which has been under relentless selling pressure from July, saw trading in 37,087 units with a value of $1,477,645 and closed at $39.50 gaining $1.50 in the process; Jamaica Money Market Brokers had 500,000 units changing hands at $8.50 with value of $4,248,000. The stock traded on the Trinidad Stock Exchange earlier in the day as high as J$11.20 and seems poised to move higher in coming days. National Commercial Bank traded 611,451 units with a value of $10,428,958 to close at $18 up $1.25; Sagicor Life had 307,190 units valued at $2,527,187 to close at $8.20; Scotia Group 2,548,259 shares to traded was valued at $50,968,068 and closed down 50 cents at $20. Reports from the market is that a pension fund is liquidating their assets and could be the cause of the decline in some of the prices over the past two weeks rather than a general weakness in the market.

Proven Investments 8% preference shares traded 439,900 units with a value of $2,239,091 to close at $5.09.

Junior Market | Blue Power traded 8,966 units to close firm at $9.28; Caribbean Cream traded 52,436 units at $1; Caribbean Flavours traded 420,746 units to close at $2.70, up by 12 cents; Lasco Distributors exchanged 24,500 units to end at $1.50; Lasco Financial Services traded 18,897 units and closed at $1.19 while Lasco Manufacturing exchanged 330,233 units to close at $1.50.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed continued weak sentiment with the bid for only 1 stock being higher and 6 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Tuesday, 15th October 2013 | The Junior Market’s newly listed Caribbean Flavours & Fragrances, saw 1,158,788 units trading up to $2.88, an increase of 30 cents as Mayberry Investments, the broker for the initial public offering, crossing the vast majority of the shares to trade.

Trading resulted in 8,503,678 units changing hands valued at $42,733,465. There were 7 stocks advancing to 7 declining. The junior market index declined 7.05 to close at 747.32. Declines were moderate in the main market with the JSE main index going down 197.24 to 83,036.36 and the all Jamaica index falling by 347.04 to 81,795.87.

Main Market | Investors picked up 97,032 units of Carreras unchanged at $39, down $2 for the day, as it closed at a new 52 weeks low. Grace Kennedy traded only 1,400 units to close up 49 cents, at $57, still well off the price in Trinidad at the equivalent of $66.40. Mayberry Investments snapped up nearly 1.8 million units of the 1,947,082 Jamaica Broilers shares for their own account, as the stock closed at $4.55, up 5 cents at the end of trading, with NCB Capital Market selling all but 4,000 units on behalf of clients. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 200,000 shares to close up 10 cents at $8.10, well below the J$10 equivalent it is trading for in Trinidad today. National Commercial Bank dropped to $17.01 at the end of trading down by $1.49 on 545,939 shares, the largest portion, 499,741 units was a cross at $17.60 by  First Global Financial Services. Sagicor Life traded 143,150 units, closing at $8.94, up 43 cents while Scotia Group exchanged 29,725 units, down 5 cents at $20.30; Seprod traded 150,000 units firm at $13; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.5% preference shares traded 474,816 units firm at $2; the 8.75% preference shares traded 316,239 units firm at $3. Proven Investments Limited 8% preference share traded 200,000 units firm at $5.09.

Junior market | Elsewhere in the Junior market, companies seem to be marking time with small volumes, except for today’s trading in Caribbean Flavours stock. AMG Packaging traded 10,000 firm at $4; Caribbean Producers traded 2,707,019 firm at $2.08; Lasco Distributors saw 89,000 units trading firm at $1.45; Lasco Financial Services traded 17,564 units firm at $1.20 and Lasco Manufacturing traded 96,800 units and closed down 5 cents at $1.45.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed the market with fluidity in price movements either way, with bid for 7 stocks being higher and 6 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Company results | Paramount Trading disclosed increased profits for the 3 months to August amounting to $19 million before tax compared to $10.7 million in 2012, up 78 percent. In the previous year 2012, after tax amounted to $8 million, Sales climbed 11 percent from $152 million to $169 million in the quarter. Helping with the increased profit was an improvement in gross profit margin, which rose from 29.6 percent to 31.3 percent and the holding of administrative and other cost to only a 7 percent increase. See our post for more details!