Trading on the Junior Market has not be strong in recent weeks and the results of some of the companies have not been strong enough to drive investors buy these stocks. as such the level of participation has not been great with nearly half the market closing daily without bids.
On Tuesday the market closed trading with 87,295 units valued at $109,786 changing hands as only 2 securities traded, none advanced and one declined. at the close, the JSE Junior Market Index fell 4.31 points to 648.31.
At the end of the trading, there were 5 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 stocks with offers that were lower. The junior market continues to exhibit weakness with 8 securities closing with no bids to buy. There were 5 securities that had no stocks being offered for sale.
Access Financial with 3,295 shares closed at $10.01 and Lasco Manufacturing had 84,000 units trading to close at 91 cents after losing 4 cents.
Only 2 securities trade on junior market
Moderate price changes on TTSE
Trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange closed with 15 securities changing hands of which 2 advanced, 3 declined and 10 traded firm, with a total of 222,485 units, valued at $2,436,444 traded.
At the close of the market, the Composite Index lost 0.07 points to close at 1,146.70, the All T&T Index fell by 0.14 points to close at 1,963.09 and the Cross Listed Index remained at 43.29.
Gains| Stocks increasing in price at the close are, Angostura Holdings that gained 5 cents, to end at $12.55 while 1,724 units were traded and Scotiabank gaining just a cent, to end at $58.01 with 1,371 units changing hands.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are, Guardian Holdings added 19,230 shares valued at $260,567 and closed 5 cents lower, at $13.55, Massy Holdings traded 1,200 shares to close with a 1 cent loss, at $68.55 and National Enterprises with 1,518 shares traded, to close at $17.50.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are, ANSA McAl with only 100 units changing hands, to end at $66.15, Clico Investment Fund with 40,720 shares valued at $899,912, remained at $22.10, First Citizens Bank contributed 21,500 shares with a value of $790,128, to end at $36.75, Guardian Media added only 20 shares to close at $19.75, National Flour Mills with 28,166 shares being traded for $30,983, closed at $1.10, National Commercial Bank traded 4,000 shares and closed at $1, Scotia Investment with 2,000 shares trading, ended at $1.40, One Caribbean Media contributed 846 shares at $25.12, Trinidad Cement with 100,000 shares changing hands for a value of $199,092, closed at $2 and West Indian Tobacco traded 90 units, to close at $119.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 2 stocks with the bid higher than their last selling prices and 3 stocks with offers that were lower.
Scotiabank Canada to cut 1,500 jobs
Scotiabank Canada is to cut 1,500 positions worldwide and take a profit hit in fourth quarter of its 2014 fiscal year, ending in October. About two thirds of the cut will come from its Canadian operation and according to Yahoo.com will result in a charge of $340 million against 2014 profit.
Despite the charge, profit outlook remain good for 2014 and beyond, but the move is as a result of general weakness of Caribbean economies, sporadic use of branches, weekly and bi-weekly, instead of consistent daily use. The sporadic branch use will result in branch closures, mainly in Caribbean and Mexico. The bank’s foot print in Mexico are many, BNS management said, but the branches to be shuttered lack traffic, which means the bulk of the branch closure will occur in this country. The bank says they will be moving to use more ATMs and internet banking facilities, in place of the physical branches.
The BNS has written down its investment in the economically challenged Venezuela, reducing it to only $50 million.
What is known is that the Caribbean region has suffered considerably from the economic downturn experienced since 2008. The operations in Jamaica has seen profit stagnated in Jamaican dollars and slipped in Canadian dollars as the Jamaican dollar was devalued. Profits stagnated in Trinidad banking subsidiary, as well. Loan demand has not been robust within the region either, and the absence of a meaningful pick up in this critical area will result in a drag on profit growth, as long as that remains the case. The sharp fall in the price of oil is going to place pressure on the twin island state of Trinidad and Tobago and by extension some of the other territories that may be dependent somewhat on business out of Trinidad. This latest development could be negative for Scotia’s Trinidad operation. Compounding the problem for Scotia, is that Jamaica that has started enjoying moderate growth that could lead to increased private sector loan demand, is faced with lower demand for government funding, as the government moves from deficit financing to one of surplus.
More inside buying at Sagicor Group
Insider trade is often an important insight into the fortunes of companies. It is not always the case, but large buying or selling is usually a tell tail sign of where company profits are heading.
Executives have been buying into Sagicor Group in recent months. In October another purchase of shares took place. The company advised the Jamaica Stock Exchange that an executive purchased 417,016 of its shares on October 24, 2014 under the Executive Long Term Inventive Scheme.
Sagicor Group reported profit of $1.62 billion for it June quarter this year, versus $1.56 billion last year, and $2.7 billion in the six months to June, this year. Third quarter profit results which are scheduled for release shortly, should be hit with redundancy and other costs, related to the acquisition and rebranding of RBC Jamaica operation at the end of June.
J$ gains against all on Monday
On Monday, the Jamaican dollar gained against all the three main currencies it normally trade with as authorized dealers purchased the equivalent of US$50,365,682 versus US$31,518,654, on Friday and sold the equivalent of US$45,798,087 compared with US$28,175,798 on Friday
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$45,307,960 compared to US$26,675,958 on Friday. The buying rate for the US dollar remained unchanged at $112.23 and US$42,168,635 was sold versus US$25,607,049 on Friday, the selling rate fell 1 cents to $112.75. The Canadian dollar buying rate, fell 51 cents to $97.12 with dealers buying C$1,662,904 and selling C$1,022,205, at an average selling rate that dropped $1.18, to $99.40. The rate for buying the British Pound dropped 37 cents to $178.27, for the purchase of £2,174,085, while £1,422,207 was sold, at $180.20, a fall of 4 cents. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$165,079, while the equivalent of US$455,118, was sold.
Highs & Lows| The highest buying rate for the US dollar, rose 3 cents to $112.88, 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 was unchanged at $100.66, the lowest buying rate declined 29 cents to $79.02, the highest selling rate gained 34 cents to close at $103.10. The lowest selling rate declined 35 cents to $95.20. The highest buying rate for the British Pound, dipped 10 cents to $180.60. The lowest buying rate rose 41 cents to $143.96, the highest selling rate climbed $1.53 to $185.59 and the lowest selling rate rose 50 cents to $173.45.
Is employment really up?
The employment numbers rose 16,700 (1.5 percent) to reach 1,124,600 persons, in June this year compared to the same time in 2013, according to data just released by Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin), but is down from March this year, with the data showing 1,133,000 persons employed at that time, and the unemployment rate at 13.6 percent.
“The Employed Labour Force this year June, is more than the 1,107,900 recorded in June 2013”, Statin said.
The latest data brought the Employment Rate for June 2014, to 86.2 percent of the work force, a 1.6 percentage point increase, compared with 84.6 percent in June 2013. The Employment Rate increased for males, by 1.8 percentage points, moving from 88.3 percent to 90.1 percent, and for females it increased by 1.5 percentage points, from 80.1 percent to 81.6 percent.
The unemployment rate stood at 13.8 percent at mid 2014 compared to 15.4 percent at the same time in 2013. Overall the number of unemployed persons decreased by 22,200 (11.0 percent) moving from 201,600 persons in July 2013 to 179,400 persons in July 2014, the report stated. But the number of persons who were classified as Outside the Labour Force in June 2014 was 778,300, an increase of 10,400.
There are seasonality in the data for employments making it a bit difficult to compared successive quarter with each other. It is expected that the Christmas quarter with increase business activity and the first quarter of the year with increased tourists arrivals and sugar production tends to have more persons employed than for the other periods of the year.
Who got jobs?| “There were significant increases in employment in the Occupation group ‘Professionals, Senior Officials and Technicians’ which increased by 14,000 persons (5.9 percent), moving from 239,400 in July 2013 to 253,400 in July 2014. Increases in employment were also observed in the group, ‘Elementary Occupations’, which increased from 142,100 persons in July 2013 to 147,900 persons (4.1 percent) in July 2014. The group ‘Craft and Related Trades Workers’ had the largest decline for the period, moving from 141,800 in July 2013 to 136,300 in July 2014 resulting in a decline of 5,500 (3.9 percent) persons,” Statin stated.
Statin went on to say that “the largest increase in the number of employed persons, were for persons in the group ‘Hotels & Restaurants Services’ that increased by 7,800 (10.4 percent) persons while ‘Education’ increased by 5,000 (7.4 percent) persons. The group ‘Real Estate, Renting &
Business Activities’ declined from 69,900 in July 2013 to 64,400 in July 2014 resulting in a decline of 5,500 (7.9 percent) persons.
JSE starts November positively
In Monday’s activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, the prices of 6 stocks rose and 4 declined, as 20 securities changed hands, ending in 513,363 units trading, valued at $5,353,713, in all market segments. The main market had one stock closing with a loss, while the junior market had only one stock gaining.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 5 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 stocks with offers that were lower.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index gained 205.33 points to 71,911.62, the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 229.58 points to close at 79,118.47 and the JSE combined index gained 157.17 points to close at 73,716.73.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Caribbean Cement with 6,000 units, gained 25 cents to $2.65, Grace Kennedy added 35,510 shares and gained $1 to end at $59, Kingston Wharves put through 650 shares, increased by 5 cents to close at $5.15, there was activity in Scotia Investments with 5,550 units, as the price increased by 60 cents, to close at $22 and Seprod with 10,850 shares gained 25 cents to close at $11.25.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Carreras with 50,174 shares to end at $34.50, Desnoes & Geddes had 1,000 units and closed at $4.95, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 54,104 ordinary shares ended at $7, Mayberry Investments had 82,358 units trading, and closed at $1.50, National Commercial Bank contributed 2,490 shares to total of stocks trading, and ended at $17, Proven Investments had 1,880 units trading to close at 18 US cents and Sagicor Real Estate Fund 6,300 shares, closed at $6.65.
Declines| Sagicor Group with 27,000 shares traded with a lost 1 cent to end at $9.65 was the only stocks with a loss at the end of trading in the main market.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 32,988 units to close at $3.
Lasco Manufacturing sole stock to rise
Section of new plant at Lasco Manufacturing at White Marl, St. Catherine
At the close of the market, there were 2 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and only 1 stock with the offer lower. The junior market continues to exhibit weakness with 10 securities closing with no bids to buy. There were 5 securities that had no stocks being offered for sale. The weakness is in keeping with technical indicators, suggesting that the junior market has a while to go, before prices start to recover across the broader market. This is especially so with profits of two of the Lasco companies falling below the results for 2013.
Lasco Manufacturing was the only junior market stock to gain at the end of trading as trading closed with 20,800 shares trading to gain 4 cents at 95 cents and Caribbean Flavours 50,323 units traded to close unchanged, at $2.35.
Lasco Financial with 98,860 shares, ended at 98 cents, Dolphin Cove with 200 units but lost 50 cents to end at $8, General Accident added 6,326 shares but lost 2 cents to close at $1.53 and Medical Disposables put through 20,000 units but lost 4 cents in closing at $1.88.
PAYE gains can’t cover corporate shortfall
PAYE collections, outperformed forecast for September, by $620 million and $677 million, for the six months to September, this year, but that was inadequate to cover the $2.5 billion drop in corporate taxes, in the latest month, for government of Jamaica revenues.
At the end of August, corporations paid over $6.63 billion versus a projection for $8.8 billion, resulting in a shortfall of $2.18 billion, by the end of September, what should have been collections of $15.3 billion turned up to be only $10.65 billion, $4.7 billion short, resulting in a $2.5 billion shortfall, in the latest month alone. The underperformance for company tax collection, was the main reason why the revenue forecast of $156.5 billion for the six months period, suffered an increased shortage of $1.4 billion in tax revenues, bringing the year to date shortfall, to $7.33 billion. Overall revenue shortage, amounted to $7.13 billion, as grants fell short by $337 million in September, but non tax revenues outperformed forecast, by $400 million for the month.
Expenditure| Payment for expenses is well below target, as capital expenditure almost crawled to a halt in September, with only $590 million spent, raising the underspending for the year to date to $7.8 billion, up from $5.38 billion at the end of August. Programmes saw savings in payments of nearly $900 million, in the month, and wages and salaries was $350 million more, in the month, than planned, but there is still a reduction year to date, in this area.
At the end of September, the fiscal deficit of $18.95 billion was ahead of target by $6.3 billion, as the capital programmes have once more taken the bulk of the hit, as revenues fall short of target.
Dividend for JPSCO shareholders
Jamaica Public Service Company has a series of preference shares listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
The company announced a dividend for one of its recent listings, a US dollar based preference share. The company, the sole distributor of power through the national grid, approved a dividend payment of the Class F9.5% Preference Share of US$0.236849313 per share to be paid on October 31, to shareholders on record as at October 29, 2014.
Jamaica Public Service Company previously paid a dividend for these preference share amounting to a total of US$1,137,652.66 or US$0.463287757 per share on August 15, 2014.
