On Thursday, the Jamaican dollar lost value against the US dollars but gained on Canadian and the Pound, as authorized dealers purchased the equivalent of US$30,422,816 versus US$27,785,981, on Wednesday and sold the equivalent of US$27,742,500 compared with US$31,164,648 on Wednesday
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$26,257,563 compared to US$24,785,903 on Wednesday. The buying rate for the US dollar rose 10 cents to $112.37 and US$25,344,008 was sold versus US$29,738,793 on Wednesday, the selling rate rose 5 cents to $112.85. The Canadian dollar buying rate, jumped 74 cents to $97.33 with dealers buying C$1,591,344 and selling C$1,177,257, at an average selling rate that fell 60 cents, to $98.50. The rate for buying the British Pound dropped 87 cents to $177.01, for the purchase of £1,099,934, while £437,264 was sold, at $179.36, a fall of 25 cents. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$1,054,289, while the equivalent of US$675,875, was sold.
Highs & Lows| The highest buying rate for the US dollar, rose 20 cents to $113.10, the lowest buying and the highest selling rates were unchanged at $91.85 and $117.70 respectively but the lowest selling rate dropped $18.15 to $91.85. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar lost 65 cents, to $98.80, the lowest buying rate fell 13 cents to $78.14, the highest selling rate fell 25 cents to close at $100.75. The lowest selling rate declined 15 cents to $94.15. The highest buying rate for the British Pound, dipped 35 cents to $179.75. The lowest buying rate fell 71 cents to $143.71, the highest selling rate rose 7 cents to $185.27 and the lowest selling rate declined 85 cents to $173.15.
J$ declined against US$ on Thursday
3 stocks rose on the junior market
CPJ gained 30 cents to end at $2.50 in trading on Thursday
At the close, there were 3 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 stocks with offers that were lower. The junior market continues to exhibit weakness with 9 securities closing with no bids to buy. There were 6 securities that had no stocks being offered for sale.
Access Financial ended with only 500 units at $10.01, Caribbean Producers traded 60,000 shares to end with an increase of 30 cents to $2.50, Lasco Distributors gained 15 cents to $1.30 with 70,000 units and Lasco Manufacturing traded 10,000 shares to end 4 cents higher at 95 cents.
Dividends at Carreras, Grace & Proven
Carreras will be paying another interim dividend of $1.20 per stock unit out of accumulated profits on December 11, 2014, to stock holders on record at November 20.
The stock will trade Ex-Dividend on November 18, 2014.
Grace Kennedy will pay an interim dividend of $0.85 on December 16, 2014 to stock holders on record at November 28, 2014. The stock will trade Ex-Dividend on November 26, 2014.
Proven Investments has advised that a dividend of US$0.0012 will be paid on December 2, 2014. The record date is November 18, 2014 and the X-dividend date is November 14, 2014 and J$0.10 was declared to Preference Shareholders with record date December 9, 2014 and payable on December 23, 2014. The ex-dividend date for the stock is December 5, 2014.
Inside buys into Scotia Group
A party connected with Scotia Group purchased 1,250,000 of the group’s shares, on October 15 and a connected party, purchased 1,220,100 of the shares, on September 30, 2014, Scotia Group reported to the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
These are the only two major insider buying, in the group’s stock for this year so far.
The banking group is expected to report full year results towards the end of this month, and announce a dividend at the same time.
Trading broadens with 17 securities
Trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange ended with 17 securities changing hands of which 3 advanced, 4 declined and 10 traded firm with a total of 89,562 units, valued at $2,032,287.
At the close of the market, the Composite Index lost 0.77 points to close at 1,146.06, the All T&T Index rose 0.18 points to close at 1,964.43 and the Cross Listed Index fell by 0.23 points to end at 42.94. Gains| Stocks increasing in price at the close are, ANSA McAl with 1,495 shares advanced by 2 cents to end at $12.75, Scotiabank contributed 7,666 shares with a value of $445,155, to close $58.07 and Unilever Caribbean increased 3 cents, to end at $64.22 with 4 units traded to close at a new 52 weeks’ high.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are, Jamaica Money Market Brokers that added 7,476 shares but lost 3 cents, to end at 42 cents, National Commercial Bank with 12,300 shares changing hands, for a value of $12,054 but lost 2 cents, to close at 98 cents, One Caribbean Media lost 2 cents with 721 shares in closing at $25.10 and Republic Bank with 2,273 shares changing hands for a value of $274,419 and closed at $120.73 as the price slipped by 1 cent.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are, Angostura Holdings with a volume of 8,552 shares, traded for $109,036 and closed at $12.75, while Clico Investment Fund with 31,215 shares valued at $689,852 remained at $22.10, First Citizens Bank traded 1,319 shares, to close at $36.76, Grace Kennedy traded 765 units at $3.85, Guardian Media 925 shares $19.75, Guardian Holdings 3,184 shares at $13.55, Massy Holdings traded 3,689 shares valued at $252,918 and closed at $68.55, National Flour Mills 2,500 shares ended at $1.10, Sagicor Financial Corporation with 478 shares, closed at $6.05 and Trinidad Cement with 5,000 shares closed at $1.99.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 1 stock with the bid higher than the last selling price and 3 stocks with offers that were lower.
Jamiaca Exports fall
Jamaica’s domestic exports for the first seven months of 2014, declined compare with the similar period in 2013.
Traditional exports earned US$453 million during the period falling by 5.3 percent or US$25.6 million below the amount recorded during the 2013 period. Mining and Quarrying earned US$368 million as the major commodity Alumina recorded lower earnings in the 2014 period. Agriculture was valued at a mere US$12.8 million and Manufacture US$72.3 million.
In the 2014 review period Non-traditional domestic exports during the January to July 2014 period accounted for 44.3 percent of domestic exports but total earnings for the newer export items fell by US$91 million or 20.2 percent to US$360 million. reduction of ethanol would have been one of the major factor for the lower export earnings as world market prices were not conducive for the production of this fuel.
C&WJ strong mobile growth continues
Jamaica, mobile subscribers grew by 125,000 during the April to September period, according to CWC Communications, the parent company for Cable & Wireless Jamaica.
At the end of March, Cable & Wireless Jamaica (CWJ) stated that they had 705,000 mobile customers. The increase since March, puts active mobile customers at roughly 830,000, by the end of September. At the end of June this year, Mobile subscriber base increased by 37 percent with revenue increasing by 34 percent, broadband base increased by 12 percent with revenue up 39 percent. The continued strong growth in mobile customers is resulting in increased revenues for the local company, moving them closer to a break-even point.
CWC Communications in their release of their September quarter’s report that “in our LIME Caribbean businesses, mobile revenue grew 6 percent on a reported basis and 8 percent at constant currency, with Jamaica up 24 percent and continuing to gain market share (5 ppts) as we invest to deliver improved services for our growing customer base. In Jamaica mobile traffic increased by 34 percent and mobile service revenue is up 38 percent at constant currency.”
The stock which traded as low as 25 cents on Wednesday traded 7,481,913 units between 28 cents and 32 cents by Mid day. The change in demand is most likely tied to the news that CWC acquired the Flow operations, which will be seen to have positive implications for CWJ going forward.
CWJ has been BUY RATED by IC Insider from early this year on strong mobile growth and reduced cost.
Jamaica’s imports drop
Jamaica’s imports of Raw Materials and Intermediate Goods for the period to July this year, declined by 6.7 percent or US$151 million to US$2.1125 billion Other Fuel and Lubricants fell by US$4.3 million to US$724 million.
Industrial Supplies, declined by 12.2 percent or US$75.6 million to US$544 million. Food and beverages fell, moving down by US$28.6 million or 14.1 percent to US$174 million due to lower importation of corn, wheat and rice. Capital Goods grew by 5.8 percent or US$9 million to US$167 million. Expenditure on Consumer Goods (excl. Motor Cars) increased by 8.2 percent or US$72 million to US$945.7 million during the first seven months of 2014 period.
Imports could decline further with the price of oil on the world market having fallen to the US$80 range since the July report was released.
Cable & Wireless Plc acquires Flow
Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (“CWC”) today announces that it has agreed terms to purchase 100 percent of the equity of Columbus International, a privately-owned fibre based telecommunications and technology services provider operating in the Caribbean, Central America and the Andean region, for USD1.85 billion.
“The move will significantly enhance CWC’s growth profile and accelerate the progress towards each of its strategic goals unveiled in May. CWC also announced the placing of new shares constituting approximately 9.99 percent of CWC’s outstanding share capital which will be used to finance in part the proposed acquisition. The Enlarged Group is expected to generate significant operating cost and capital expenditure synergies, with additional revenue benefits also available. The transaction will be earnings neutral in the first full year post-completion and materially earnings enhancing in subsequent years” CWC directors stated in their release.
Columbus is a privately-owned diversified telecommunications and technology services company, based in Barbados, with approximately 700,000 residential customers in the Caribbean, Central America and the Andean region. In the Caribbean, it is one of the leading providers of triple-play cable TV and broadband enabled services over its proprietary fibre optic network infrastructure. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Columbus Networks, Columbus provides backhaul connectivity to 42 countries in the region, as well as capacity and IT services, corporate data solutions and data centre services throughout the Caribbean, Central America and the Andean region. Columbus also provides next generation connectivity and IT solutions, managed networking and cloud-based services under the brand Columbus Business Solutions.
For the year ended 31 December 2013, Columbus had revenue of USD505m with EBITDA of USD216m and total operating profit of USD104m. For the six months ended June 2014, Columbus had revenue of USD284m with EBITDA of USD118m and total operating profit of USD48 million.
J$ mostly decline on Wednesday
On Wednesday, the Jamaican dollar lost value against the Canadian and US dollars but gained on the Pound, as authorized dealers purchased the equivalent of US$27,785,981 versus US$30,681,096, on Tuesday and sold the equivalent of US$31,164,648 compared with US$34,360,936 on Tuesday
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$24,785,903 compared to US$25,190,135 on Tuesday. The buying rate for the US dollar rose 7 cents at $112.27 and US$29,738,793 was sold versus US$30,791,749 on Tuesday, the selling rate rose 4 cents to $112.80. The Canadian dollar buying rate, dipped $1.39 to $96.59 with dealers buying C$932,681 and selling C$805,340, at an average selling rate that rose 31 cents, to $99.10. The rate for buying the British Pound dropped 26 cents to $177.88, for the purchase of £1,328,043, while £338,783 was sold, at $179.61, a fall of 13 cents. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$93,496, while the equivalent of US$178,835, was sold.
Highs & Lows| The highest buying rate for the US dollar, rose 2 cents to $112.90, the lowest buying and the highest selling rates were unchanged at $91.85 and $117.70 respectively but the lowest selling rate shot up $16.34 to $110. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar lost 40 cents, to $99.45, the lowest buying rate fell 83 cents to $78.27, the highest selling rate fell $1.50 to close at $101. The lowest selling rate declined 70 cents to $94.30. The highest buying rate for the British Pound, dipped 40 cents to $180.10. The lowest buying rate rose 46 cents to$144.42, the highest selling rate fell 71 cents to $185.20 and the lowest selling rate rose 25 cents to $174.
