TTSE: Thursday, 16th May 2013

May 17, 2013 by

TTSE still no aggression | Buyers want stocks to buy in the Trinidad market and some sellers want to sell but there appears to be a standoff with sellers not wanting to part with some of the stocks that are not in great demand at much lower prices that they are offering to sell for. The same seems true for buyers, as there are clearly a shortage of some stocks on the market. The result of this standoff is limited trading and small price changes.

Trading on the main market | 13 securities trading with 5 advancing, none declined and 8 traded firm with a volume of 462,965 shares valued at $10,535,326.98. Conglomerate Ansa Mcal traded 125,000 shares for $8,402,500; Angostura Holdings traded 109,500 shares with a value of $985,479, while First Caribbean International Bank moved 50,000 shares valued at $400,000.

Clico Investment Fund was the only active security on the Mutual Fund Market, posting a volume of 7,447 shares valued at $156,827.

TTSEMay16

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

TTSE: Wednesday, 15th May, 2013

May 16, 2013 by

Slow day in T&T

Stocks were not actively traded today on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange. Only 13 securities traded with 1 advancing and 1 declining. The number of securities that traded speaks to the sluggishness of trading. The main market registered a volume of 551,546 shares valued at $6,304,909 while two mutual fund traded with 147,371 shares changing hands valued at $2,959,830.19.

Trinidad Cement traded 376,710 shares valued at $359,696, Guardian Media traded 116,100 shares for $2,292,969.00, ANSA Mcal saw 37,000 shares trading with a value of $2,487,140, while Republic Bank added 8,952 shares valued at $984,720.

Price changes were moderate resulting in virtual no movement in the indices.

TTSEMay15

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

TTSE: Tuesday, 14th May 2013

May 15, 2013 by

Moderate Price movements

Trading volume in the main market was 1,231,545 shares valued at $7,881,995.28. Trinidad Cement traded 1,036,555 shares for a value of $984,727, followed by Scotiabank Trinidad & Tobago with a volume of 85,000 shares for $5,894,750. Angostura Holdings accounted for 55,125 shares with a value of $496,136.  14 securities of which 5 advanced, 4 declined and 5 traded firm.

Scotia Investments was the day’s largest gainer, increasing $0.15 to end the day at $1.70. Conversely, Clico Investment Fund suffered the day’s greatest loss, falling $0.05 to close at $21.04 while trading a volume of 66,564 shares valued at $1,400,198.

3 stocks traded at 52 weeks high on Tuesday while there were 5 stocks with bids above last selling price and 5 with offers below the last selling price.

TTSEMay14

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

TTSE: Monday, 13th May 2013

May 14, 2013 by

Moderate Monday

Trading on the Trinidad & Tobago stock exchange was moderate with a volume of 219,942 shares crossing the floor of the Exchange valued at $2,641,580.

Angostura Holdings was the volume leader with 104,400 shares changing hands for a value of $939,600.00, followed by Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation with 74,000 shares being traded for $266,400. Investors bought 9,174 Republic Bank shares with a value of $1,009,135. National Flour Mills enjoyed the day’s largest gain, increasing $0.05 to end the day at $0.86 as 15 securities traded of which 5 advanced and 10 traded firm. There were no stocks recording price declines. While there are signs of further price gains for some stocks, there are some that indicate they are likely to suffer a price decline as there are sellers who have not been able to find buyers for some time with the price they are offered at either being at the last selling price or below.

Five stocks closed with bids over the last selling price.

Stocks to watch this week | Investors should keep a close eye on the following stocks as they have the potential to record price gains. These are Ansa MaCal, One Caribbean media, Republic Bank, Scotia Bank and West Indian Tobacco.

TTSEMay13

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

TTSE: Friday, 10th May 2013

May 13, 2013 by

TCL dominates, Grace gains

Trinidad Cement (TCL) traded 1,297,434 shares and the price was down 2 cents to 95 cents at the end of trade. Grace Kennedy traded 35,400 units and gained 27 cents to close at $3.60 in the process. There was still unfilled demand at the end of trade at $3.61 but there were no stocks on offer. Angostura Holdings traded 44,800 units at the same price as prior to today. Grace released their first quarter result yesterday and this may have contributed to the price changes.

Trading accounted for 1.4 million units, valued at $2.33 million as two stocks registered price gains and one fell. Ten securities traded for the day.

TTSEMay10

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

TTSE: Thursday, 9th May 2013

May 10, 2013 by

Witco grabs $2.94 more

Trinidad Cement with a volume of 1,433,143 units valued at $1,395,545.50 while gaining 1 cent in price was the dominant traded stock but West Indian Tobacco stole the show with another record price up $2.94 to close the day at $110.01 on a mere 80 shares that traded for the stock. The stock closed without any on offer, the indication is that the price could go much higher in the days ahead. JMMB traded 157100 units at 50 cents around J$7.80. The stock is trading at $7 in the Jamaican Market. Guardian Holdings traded 47,204 units at $17.50 with a value of $826,070, without any price change, Neal & Massey traded 38,959 units at $59 valued at $2,298,581. Clico Investment fund traded 28.090 units at $21.08 the same price as yesterday with a value of $592,137.20.

TTSEMay9At the close, there were 6 stocks closed with bids that are higher than the closing price. These are Ansa Merchant Bank, Berger, Grace Kennedy, Prestige Holdings, Republic Bank and Scotia Investments. Praetorian Property Mutual Fund did not trade but had a bid of 102,650 shares at $3.40 each. The fund just released results to March 2013 showing a small profit of $164,533 versus $2.8 million in 2012 and a loss of $6.4 million for the year to September 2012. The book value of the fund is put at $5.43 but the entity looks illiquid with less than a $1 million in cash down from $2 million at the end of September last year.

A volume of 1,711,122 shares crossed the floor of the Exchange today valued at $5,054,669.42, as 11 securities traded with 4 advancing, 1 declining and 6 traded firm.

Clico Investment Fund was the only active security on the Mutual Fund Market, posting a volume of 28,090 shares. Clico Investment Fund remained at $21.08. Fortess Caribbean Property Fund remained at $5.00.

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

TT Cement huge turnaround but…

May 9, 2013 by

Trinidad Cement is reporting a huge turn around in its fortunes in a release to the stock exchange. Revenues jumped to T$482 million up from $365 million in the first quarter of last year. Profit before tax climbed to $16.657 million from a big $85 million loss in 2012. Profit after tax amounted to $14 million versus a loss of $74.9 million before minority interest. The group has been saddled with problems which led to financial restructuring that took quite a while. Last year the Trinidad operation was closed as workers went on strike. Cement was imported from Jamaica to help fill the gap. Jamaica with its loss remains a big drag on the parent company’s operation. Last year total losses amounted to $390 million. (All currency is the TT$)

The company stated in its quarterly report that revenue for the quarter, increased by $117 million compared with the prior year as a result of higher cement sales volumes (in Trinidad and Tobago by 52 percent, in Jamaica by 7 percent and in export markets by 29 percent) and higher selling prices in most markets. Concrete volumes have also exceeded the prior year period by 10 percent. As a result of the significant expenditure made in the latter part of last year, plant performance has been more reliable and efficient with clinker production exceeding prior year by 32 percent (partially due to the TCL strike in 2012) and cement production by 21 percent.

TCL equity remains strong with nearly TT$700 million, working capital is tight with it being a little more than one to one.

Management concluded their statement as follows: The Trinidad and Tobago market has recorded very strong demand and it is anticipated this will continue. While there was declining demand in Jamaica and Barbados, it is hoped that with a post IMF agreement in the former, and general elections in the latter, growth will return to these markets. In addition, growth being experienced in Guyana and Suriname and the initiatives by the Group in the pursuit of additional export markets, plant efficiency and cost containment are likely to contribute to the continuation of the good results for the coming months.

Stock outlook | The group is still loaded with debt with finance charges of $65 million in the quarter, an increase over the $51 million paid in 2012. With such cost and principal repayment there is little room to slip as debt servicing is a large part of income. The debt to equity ratio seems well out of line and the call ought to be for them to go to the stock market for fresh long term capital.

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

TTSE: Wednesday, May 8th 2013

May 9, 2013 by

Total trade up but . . .

Wednesday’s trading on the T&T stock exchange resulted in some 786,889 units trading as Guardian Holdings fell 50 cents as 585,855 units valued at $10.5million changed hands after the company released first quarter results that was less than the previous year’s quarter. This was mainly caused by one-off charges but with the core business doing well with profit up 29 percent without the charges.

One Caribbean Media with very good first quarter results, saw a jump in the stock price of 40 cents on the trading of 10,000 units, to end the day at $17. There were no stocks on offer at the end of trade but there was a bid for 7,587 units at $16.76. Trinidad Cement traded 146,781 units and gained just one cent in the process, to close at 96 cents. Republic Bank traded 11,110 units at $110, up 1 cent on the day.

15 securities of which 7 advanced, 3 declined and 5 traded firm as 786,889 units traded with a value of $12.17 million.

The following stocks closed with bids higher than the last selling price; Ansa Merchant Bank bid $38.51 last sale $38.50, Berger last sale $3.55 closing bid $3.58, Grace Kennedy, bid $3.32 last price $3.23, National enterprises bid $16 last sale $15.58, Point Lisa with a bid of $3.65 versus a last sale of $3.60, Scotia Investments last sale price $1.55 with the closing bid of $1.58, Republic bid is a cent above the last selling price of $110 and West Indian Tobacco bid $110 last sale $107.07.

Clico Investment Fund traded 28,941 units with a value of $610,000.

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

Daily Trading 6 May 2013

May 7, 2013 by

JSE Trading | Proven dominates again

Proven dominated trading again today as it did on Thursday last week. NCB Capital Market purchased nearly US$549,599 of the shares as 5,000,900 Proven’s ordinary shares changed hands, with the bulk of it, 5 million units, being sold by one of NCB Capital Market’s clients which they bought for their own account at US$0.1099 each. Proven also dominated in the preference share segment of the market with its 8% preference shares, trading 9,681,047 units valued at $48,708,793.93, as the stock slipped 6 cents, to close at $5.03. Data shows that NCBCM sold from their in-house portfolio to various clients.

Trading volume came in at 17,658,172 units with a value of $159,616,952.40.

JSEINdicesMay6Mayberry Investments sold 1.733 million Scotia Group shares from in-house plus 150,000 units on behalf of one of their clients in today’s trading as Scotia Group saw 2.411 million units trading with a value of $52.98 million. Jamaica Broilers saw trading in 266,098 units, with a value of $1.198 million. Sagicor Investments bought the bulk of the Scotia Bank shares apparently mostly for clients.

In contrast to Scotia, National Commercial Bank traded just 27,610 units at a value of $506,000 but Lasco Manufacturing traded 51,421 units valued at $555.4 million.

At the close the market, the All Jamaica Composite index gained 789.23 points closing at 83,274.18. The main market index, the JSE Index, closed up 448.64 at 84,259.73 points, the junior market index slipped 7.71 to 620.75 mainly due to 47 cent drop in Dolphin Cove shares to $7.92. Also contributing to the fall of this index was a 19 cents fall in Blue Power on 2,404 shares that traded and 10 cents off for Access Financial down to $7 and Consolidated Bakeries off 10 cents to $1.10.

Grace Kennedy gained 50 cents to close at $55.51 and Scotia Bank gained 69 cents to $21.99. Seven stocks closed the day with higher bids than the last selling price. These include Blue Power, Carreras, Ciboney, Dolphin Cove, Jamaica Producers, Kingston Properties and Scotia Investments.

Watch for further advances in the market in the trading days ahead is the message from the market.

TTSE Trading |  Republic Banks puts on $1

Republic Bank had the biggest day trading with an increase of $1.08 to end the day at $109.98.

In another moderate day of trading, 550,425 shares crossed the floor of the main market valued at $6,150,572.56. Angostura Holdings traded 430,897 shares (78 percent of shares trading) for a value of $3,878,073, followed by Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation with 47,763 shares for $174,334.95. Sagicor Financial Corporation saw trading in 30,190 shares with a value of $208,317.70, while Neal & Massy Holdings added 24,164 shares valued at $1,425,676.00. Angostura Holdings suffered the day’s greatest decline, falling $0.50 to close at $9.00.

Clico Investment Fund traded 20,425 shares valued at $429,129.25 as the price declined by $0.11 to end at $21.01.

TTSEMay6Trading took place in 13 securities of which 2 advanced, 3 declined and 8 traded firm.  At the end of trading, there was only one stock with its bid above the last selling price. On Friday there were 5 stocks that closed above their last selling price.

ForEx Trading | FX sell off continues

Authorized dealers were selling the US dollar at JS$99.0276 on average on Monday, but they were paying $98.42 on average to purchase the funds from the public. The prices continued lower than the prior trading day, as was the case all of last week.

Purchases by the dealers amounted to US$41.2 million with sales exceeding purchases by over US$3 million when US$44.36 million were sold to the public. The imbalance between sales and purchases is unusual for Mondays which are normally days when purchases exceed sales. The out turn for Monday suggests that authorized dealers are selling off some of their portfolio. If so, rates could decline more on Tuesday as more sell off takes place.

ForExSummaryMay6Interestingly, while the averages are falling, that is not the case for the highest traded selling price which remains at $104.22 with the lowest settling at $82.66 according the daily Bank of Jamaica’s foreign exchange report. The highest buying rate came out at $99.30 and the low $81.16. Rates for the Canadian dollar also fell from Friday’s close while the Pound sterling rates were mixed, with selling being slightly higher than on Friday but the rate for purchasing was lower by $1.70.

ForExDEtailsMay6

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T&T: Monthly inflation slows

May 7, 2013 by

CENTRAL BANK HOLDS REPO RATE AT 2.75%

Headline Inflation slowed a month-on-month basis for two consecutive months to 0.2 per cent increase in March compared with an increase of 0.3 per cent in February. Food inflation, the main driver of headline inflation, rose to 12.9 per cent in March 2013, up from 10.6 per cent in February. This was mainly attributed to faster price increases for vegetables (24.2 per cent compared with 17.8 per cent in February 2013), fish (5.7 per cent compared with 4.8 per cent in February 2013) and food products not elsewhere classified (40.1 per cent compared with 31.9 per cent in February 2013). Slower price increases were recorded for meat (6.0 per cent compared with 6.9 per cent in February 2013) and oils and fats (0.8 per cent compared with 1.6 per cent in February 2013). In contrast, prices declined for milk, cheese and eggs (-1.5 per cent), fruits (-2.7 per cent) and sugar, jam and confectionery (-3.0 per cent). The lower month over month inflation rate would have given the Central Bank some comfort in keeping the repo rates at the current levels for some time longer even as liquidity increased in the system

The latest data on retail prices released by the Central Statistical Office indicate that there was a slight increase in the rate of inflation for the twelve month period. Headline inflation, measured by the twelve-month increase in the Index of Retail Prices, rose to 6.9 per cent in March 2013 from 5.9 per cent in the previous month.

Core inflation | Core Inflation which excludes the influence of food prices, remained relatively unchanged, inching up to 2.2 per cent in March from 2.1 per cent recorded in February. There was an uptick in the price increase for alcoholic beverages and tobacco (4.1 per cent compared with 2.0 per cent in February) while prices decelerated for health (6.0 per cent compared with 6.1 per cent in February). Growth in private sector credit remained relatively slow in February 2013. On a year-on-year basis, credit granted by the consolidated system to the private sector increased by 2.1 per cent from 1.9 per cent in the previous month. Among the major loan categories, lending for real estate mortgages rose at a robust rate of 13.4 per cent compared with 11.6 per cent in January, while the pace of growth in consumer lending slowed, to 2.9 per cent compared with 3.2 per cent in January 2013. However, business lending declined on a year-on-year basis for the third consecutive month, by 2.1 per cent in February 2013.

Liquidity | Liquidity levels in the financial system, though still high, retreated in the first three weeks of April 2013. Commercial banks’ excess reserve balances held at the Central Bank fell to a daily average of $5,236 million in April 1-23 compared with a daily average of $6,043 million in March. Central Bank intervention in the foreign exchange market via sales of US$60 million to authorised dealers helped to remove $383 million in excess liquidity from the system. Commercial banks remained adequately liquid and therefore did not require funds from the inter-bank market or the repo window. The Central Bank plans to undertake additional measures in the coming months to withdraw excess system liquidity.

Interest rates | Short term interest rates declined further in April 2013. The interest rate on 91-day treasury bills fell to 0.15 per cent in April 2013 from 0.18 per cent in March 2013 and the 182-day treasury bill rate declined to 0.36 per cent in March 2013 from 0.46 per cent in January. With rates in US comparative markets also declining, the differential between TT and US three-month t-bills remained unchanged at 0.10 per cent in April 2013. While economic activity is expected to pick up gradually over the course of 2013, the recovery is likely to be subdued. Continued stability in core inflation suggests that underlying inflationary pressures remain well contained. In these circumstances, the Central Bank views the present accommodative monetary stance as appropriate and has decided to maintain the ‘Repo’ rate at 2.75 per cent. The Bank will continue to keep economic and monetary conditions under close review in the coming months.

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: ,