Trading on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange resumed on Tuesday after the Monday holiday break and resulted in slightly more stocks declining than advancing. The market closed with 10 active securities changing hands, with 4 stocks rising, 5 declining while 1 remained unchanged, as 366,280 shares valued at $3,266,700 changed hands. The market ended with 1 stock closing at 52 weeks’ high.
The Composite Index lost 0.05 points to close at 1,109.62, the All T&T Index fell 1.37 points to close at 1,761.23 and the Cross Listed Index gained 0.17 points to 60.90.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator ended with 6 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 with offers that were lower.
Gains| Clico Investment Fund rose 4 cents in trading 7,965 shares, to close at $22.65, Firstcaribbean International Bank gained 1 cent in trading 715 shares at 52 weeks’ high of $6.57. Massy Holdings gained 1 cent in trading 41,299 shares valued at $1,988,876, to close at $48.16 and National Commercial Bank rose by 2 cents in trading 300,030 shares for a value of $726,072 and closed at $2.42.
Losses| Guardian Holdings ended with a loss of 14 cents while trading 5,200 shares at $12.85, National Enterprises fell 5 cents to close at $11.15 while trading 845 units, Republic Financial Holdings declined by 1 cent to close at $107.89 with 1,606 shares changing hands. Sagicor Financial Corporation closed with 50 shares changing hands with a fall of 1 cent at $7.14 and Trinidad and Tobago NGL fell 6 cents in trading 4,975 units to close at $20.94.
Firm Trades| Trinidad Cement traded 3,595 units at $3.50.
More TTSE’s stocks fall – Tuesday
TT$ drops 4.7% with US$ shortage
Jamaica is not the only country in the Caribbean undergoing exchange rate adjustment. Trinidad and Tobago that has had a long period of steady exchange rate versus the US dollar is now seeing its currency lose value.
At least one company, National Flour Mills speak of shortage of foreign currency to do their business.
While devaluation has been commonplace for some time in Jamaica, the country’s neighbor, Trinidad and Tobago who have had seen a steady exchange rate versus the US dollar for years, at around $6.30 has now seen a near 5 percent devaluation of their currency with the rate falling from $6.32 in October last year to $6.63 currently for a devaluation of 4.7 percent against the United States currency.
The rate could slip even more, with the price of oil on the world market below US$50 a barrel starving the country that is highly dependent on oil revenues to fuel its economy, coupled with high levels of inflation over a number of years while the exchange rate remained stable.
Jamaican dollar has lost close to 5 percent in its value this year against the United States dollar, taking the exchange rate over $125 to the US even as inflation for the year to date is negative. Since the start of 2015 the local dollar has fallen from $114.66 to the current rate of $125.43 a decline of 9.4 percent and beating the rate of inflation for the same period by 8.5 percent.