Trading in the Jamaican foreign exchange market saw dealers purchasing US$8 million more than they sold on Monday. The rate of the local dollar continue to be eroded against the critical US dollar. The Jamaican dollar also declined against the Pound but gained against the Canadian dollar.
The market closed with dealers buying the equivalent of US$55,574,036 and selling US$47,693,027, in contrast to US$33,671,447 purchased and US$25,438,235 sold on Friday.
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$52,708,850 compared to US$30,487,529 on Friday, as the buying rate for the US dollar rose 20 cents to close at $122.57. A total of US$44,797,667 was sold versus US$24,056,712 on 
Friday with the selling rate rising 3 cents to $123.18. The Canadian dollar buying rate dropped 99 cents to end at $94.17 with dealers buying C$1,249,836 and selling C$810,992, at an average rate that slipped 5 cents to $97.48. The rate for buying the British Pound fell 65 cents to $175.25 for the purchase of £1,251,371, while £1,451,992 was sold, as the rate jumped $2.53 to $179.55.
At the end of trading, the selling rate for Euro, climbed $1.72 to close at J$141.05, from Friday’s rate, according to data from Bank of Jamaica, while dealers purchased the European common currency at J$140.16 for a rise of $3.18 from Friday’s rate. 
The US dollar equivalent of other currencies traded amounts to US$115,775 being bought, while US$137,203 was sold.
Highs & Lows| Notable changes to the highest and lowest traded rates for the Jamaican dollar against the main currencies on Monday are, a fall of $2.63 in the lowest selling rate of the US dollar to end at $100.03, a rise of $2.10 in the lowest selling rate of the Canadian dollar to $89.30 and a decline of $4.40 in the lowest selling for the British Pound to end at $167.80.
US$8m more FX bought than sold – Monday
6 TTSE stocks trade – Monday
Trading ended with just 6 active securities changing hands on Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange on Monday with 1 stock gaining, 4 declining while 1 remained unchanged as trading as selling pressure continues in the market. Trading ended with 57,196 shares valued at $589,600 changing hands..
The Composite Index declined by 0.56 points to close at 1,124.67, the All T&T Index eased 1.11 points to close at 1,797.89 and the Cross Listed Index remained at 59.97.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator ended with 5 stocks with the bid higher than the last selling prices and 12 with offers that were lower.
Gains| Trinidad and Tobago NGL gained 1 cent, to close at $19.53 with 4,452 shares trading.
Losses| Clico Investment Fund traded 10,500 units at $22.50 after shedding 10 cents, Guardian Holdings had 1,144 shares changing hands, to end 1 cent lower at $12.99, Massy Holdings lost 50 cents to close at 52 weeks’ low of $51 with 2,480 shares changing hands and Trinidad Cement traded 36,683 shares to end with a loss of 1 cent, at $3.35.
Firm Trades| JMMB Group closed at 58 cents with 1,937 shares changing hands.
Eppley jumps $76 on Monday
Eppley jumps sharply to close at a new high of $580.76
At the close, there were two 52 weeks’ highs with 14 active securities trading, with 8 advancing and 3 declining. Volume traded is just 534,047 shares valued at $3,394,975, while 4 stocks closed with bids higher than the last selling prices and 3 ended with lower offers.
At the end of trading in a market, Caribbean Cream traded 19,811 units and fell 15 cents to end at $4.20, Caribbean Flavours had 104,812 shares changing hands at $8.50, Consolidated Bakeries gained 10 cents in trading 40,000 shares to close at $1.35, Dolphin Cove had 16,144 shares changing hands at $12.50. Honey Bun rose 75 cents to end at a 52 weeks’ high of $17.95 with 500 shares trading.
Iron Rock Insurance traded at $3.40 at the close while 4,000 shares changed hands, with a gain of 5 cents, Jamaican Teas traded 1,817 shares and gained 1 cent to end at $4, Jetcon Corporation ended at $2.90 while 66,153 units traded. Key Insurance traded 5,300 shares but gained 30 cents to end at $2.80, Lasco Distributors fell 10 cents and ended at $7.50 with 213,679 shares trading, Lasco Financial gained 25 cents to close at $3.40 with 25,585 shares changing hands. Lasco Manufacturing rose $1.05 to close at $4.60 with 27,458 shares trading and tTech ended with 8,688 units changing hands to end with a loss of 30 cents at $4.15.
Slow trading in morning session – Monday
Trading in the early morning session on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, after 85 minutes of trading, 
on Monday, the average volume traded amounts to 19,944 units per active stock, compared to an average of 657,664 units traded in the mid-morning session on Friday. Notwithstanding the low volume the market indices record strong gains.
By just under one and a half hour of trading a total of 28 securities accounting for 558,419 shares changed hands as 10 stocks gained and 7 declined.
The market saw the all Jamaica Composite Index gained 1,413.41 points to 168,043.77, the JSE Market Index rose 1,263.82 points to 151,303.00, the JSE combined index ended with a rise of 1,612.99 points to 161,970.95 and the junior market index gained 42.97 points to 2,107.82.
Services employed more Jamaicans
Jamaica’s unemployment rate declined in December last year, compared with the same period in 2014, as 31,400 persons more persons obtained employment than in 2014, according to data recently released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).
Persons gaining employment went mostly in the Occupational group ‘Service Workers, Shops and Market Sales Workers’ with an increase of 15.9 percent or 34,700 persons, from 218,300 in December 2014 to 253,000 in December 2015, STATIN stated in their latest report on employment in Jamaica. The group ‘Elementary Occupations’ increased by 20.6 percent from 137,100 persons in December 2014 to 165,300 persons at the end of 2015.
Construction sector employed more in late 2015.
The largest increase in the number of employed persons by Industry occurred in the groups ‘Wholesale & Retail, Repair of Motor Vehicle & Equipment’ and ‘Construction’ with an increase of 14,200 persons or 6 percent, while the group ‘Construction’ increased by 9,800 persons (12.9 percent).
Employment in the industry group ‘Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry & Fishing’ declined for the period moving from 199,600 in December 2014 to 194,000. Manufacturing suffered a decline of 5,200 persons (6.6 percent).
Unemployment edge down
The unemployment rate for December 2015 for Jamaica edged down to 13.3 percent, a 0.9 percentage point decrease, compared to 14.2 percent in December 2014.
The number of unemployed persons decreased by 9,900, from 188,000 in December 2014, to 178,100 in December 2015, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica reported in April.
While the unemployment numbers decreased by just under 10,000 persons, more Jamaicans gained employment than the fall in the unemployed numbers. A total of 31,400 persons obtained employment in December 2015 over the similar period in 2014, resulting in 1,163,600 employed persons in the work force said by the STATIN to be 1,341,700 persons as of December 2015. In December 2014, a total of 1,132,200 residence in Jamaica were said to be employed.
Post budget stock growth seen
Gary Peart, Chief Executive of Mayberry Investments.
Jamaican stocks declined since reaching record levels between January and early February, ahead of the general elections held in late February, but Gary Peart, Chief Executive officer of Mayberry Investments expects the price of Jamaican stocks to continue to grow in 2016 after the completion of the 2016/7 budget debate.
The local stock market doubled in 2015 and reached a peak earlier in 2016, declined in the run up to and after the general election. The All Jamaica Index closed on a high of February 4, at 183,366.39 points, gaining 9.6 percent for the year but declined to 170,638.70 on the day of election, on February 25, since then it has fallen further as low as 164,504.76 on April 21 and now sits at 166,630.36 just below the 2015 close of 167,363.25.
The junior market that peaked at 2,357.20 points on January 12 for an increase of 31 percent since December, declined as low as 1,762.87 on April 7, 
with some recovery since, to close at 2,064.85 on the last trading day of April and is up compared to the 1,791.05 points the market closed out 2015 at.
According to Peart, in an executive commentary on Mayberry’s March 2016 quarterly report, things should change after the current budget presentation.
According to Peart, “Despite the reduced enthusiasm from investors as the market awaits the outcome of the 2016/2017 budget, we believe that the confidence in the market will continue and the volumes and transaction levels in the equities market will grow as the equity market continues to outperform fixed income securities investments. The Government has committed to keeping the incentives for the Junior Stock Exchange in place and we consider this a positive move for achieving growth in the economy whilst increasing investors’ returns.”
Watch their money not their words
Natalia Gobin-Gunter Chairman and Deputy Managing director inserting name strip to indicate listing of Key Insurance on the junior market.
The survey findings of carried out amongst Jamaica’s business executives, show wild swings in their views on current conditions since the start of the data in 2005, while the index of future business conditions was far more predictive of actual business developments. The attached chart shows this up quite clearly. Other findings of the survey also points out that the top management of the various companies were was off the mark when it came to inflation, interest rates and the rate of exchange of the local dollar. One of the clearest measures to test what the executives say and do, is a comparison of the sentiments on business conditions and the performance of the stock market.
When it came time for the business community to put their money where their mouth is, it turned out to be vastly different from what they were saying in the Business Condition Survey. One measure of the business community’s bet on the future, is shown in the attached graph. The graph shows future expectations are is much more aligned with future business conditions than with current ones.
What the business sector did, reflected itself in a much smoother monthly movement than what they said about the future. When it comes to money, the stock market reflects what people are doing with their money as opposed to what they say. The chart shows the movement in the all Jamaica Composite Index, plotted against the two business surveys published by the country’s central bank.The movement of the stock market seems a better predictor of future expectations, than the surveys, as shown by the smoother movement of the stock market compared with the sentiments data. What is also true, is that the future expectations and the stock market movements are fairly closely aligned with each other.
Profits up 18% at Eppley
The insurance premium financer Eppley, reported a 17.7 percent increase in profit after tax for the first quarter this year, of $10.6 million over the $8.7 million made in the first quarter of 2015. The profit resulted in earnings per share of $13.27 in the first three months to March this year.
The improved results emanated from interest income of $43 million, down from $44.94 million in the first quarter of 2015 while net interest income ended at $15.4 million compared with $15.95 million in the 2015 quarter. Other operating income ended at $11.64 million from $5 million in 2015.
Administrative expenses climbed a big 34 percent to $16.48 million from $12.3 million.
The Board approved a dividend of $9 per share payable on April 20 to ordinary shareholders on record as of April 11. The board disclosed that they expect to maintain this level of dividend each quarter, to be adjusted with the final quarterly dividend each year, to distribute the vast majority of annual earnings.
Rights Issue|Eppley will be issuing additional ordinary shares to fund the expansion of our business through a rights issue to existing shareholders who will be advised shortly of the terms of the issue.
Proceeds from the rights will improve the equity capital which now stands at a paltry $314 million and improve the debt to equity ratio which is heavily weighted towards medium term redeemable preference shares. Leverage was 3.2 times equity capital at the end of the quarter, with the average cost of debt at 10 percent. At the end of the quarter, cash was $164 million and net asset value of $394 per share, while invested funds consisting mainly of loans, leases and receivables amounted to $1.26 billion, with an average yield of 16%.
Eppley last traded at $505 on the junior market of the stock exchange and boast a PE of 6 based on projected earnings of $80 per share for 2016 which would result in earnings growing by 14 percent over 2015 out come.
JSE ends April positively – Friday
Mayberry Investments traded 17.65m shares on the JSE on Friday.
The JSE Market Index that plummeted sharply by 2,934.82 points on Thursday, recovered just 527.92 points on Friday to end at 150,039.18. The all Jamaica Composite Index gained 590.41 points on Friday but in contrast to the drop of 3,282.21 points on Thursday as it closed at 166,630.36 and the JSE combined index that dived 2,789.11 points on Thursday enjoyed a slight increase by 94.38 points, to close at 160,357.96. The decline in the movement in the main market on Friday, breaks the four consecutive trading days that the indices gained prior to today out turn.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading showed 21 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 with lower offers.
At the end of market activities, Berger Paints gained 10 in trading 2,472 shares at $4, Cable & Wireless lost 2 cents and closed at $1.37 in trading 349,000 units, Caribbean Cement traded 83,248 shares but the price fell $1.44 to close at $26.56, Carreras rose 50 cents while trading 16,265 shares, to close at $63. Rebranded Gleaner Company, 1834 Investments, gained 1 cent to close at 99 cents in trading 101,900 shares, Jamaica Broilers had 25,000 units changing hands, to close with a loss of 35 cents at $14.15. Jamaica Stock Exchange traded 5,000 units and declined by $1, to close at $21, Kingston Wharves traded 21,644 shares to close at $11.15, with a loss of 5 cents, Mayberry Investments traded 17,650,039 shares but fell 2 cents to close at $3.30.
National Commercial Bank gained $1.20 while 180,965 shares traded, to close at $41, after the company released improved results for the March quarter, Pan Jamaican lost $1 to close at $88 with 4,860 shares changing hands. Radio Jamaica traded 94,200 shares and climbed 7 cents to close at $1.15. Sagicor Group gained 45 cents to end with 12,844 shares changing hands at $22.50, Scotia Group closed with a loss of $1, to end at $30 while 10,421 units changed hands, Supreme Ventures gained 1 cent and closed at $5.06 with 160,489 shares changing hands. Proven Investments closed with 8,677 ordinary shares trading at 20 US cents and JMMB Group 6% preference share ended with 62,630 units trading with a loss of 5 cents at $1.10.
