Sagicor Financial dominated trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange, accounting for 83.78 percent of the 1,164,725 stocks changing hands carrying a total value of $9,184,581.
There was trading in 12 securities of which 4 advanced 3 declined and 5 traded firm with.
The Composite Index lost 0.22 points to close at 1,151.01, the All T&T Index fell by just 0.23 points to close at 1,987.38 and the Cross Listed Index fell by a mere 0.03 points to end at 41.19.
Gains| Stocks enjoying a price increase at the close are, Flavorite Foods with 721 shares, gained a cent in ending at $5.75, Trinidad Cement contributed 30,095 shares with a value of $58,670 to close at $1.95, for a 3 cents gain, Scotia Investments with a volume of 82,621 shares traded for $115,679 and ended at $1.41, up a cent and Unilever Caribbean with 100 shares, closed with a gain of 2 cents to end at $$63.05 for a new 52 weeks high.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are Republic Bank that lost 3 cents to end at $121.90 while trading 16 units, Sagicor Financial Corporation with 975,827 shares changing hands for a value of $6,340,684 and lost 3 cents to $6.50 and West Indian Tobacco with 1,616 units closed at $118, after losing 3 cents.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are Agostini’s with 238 shares closed at $17.39, ANSA McAL 62 units were traded at $66.29, Clico Investment Fund traded 55,255 shares valued at $1,215,709 and remained at $22, First Citizens closed at $35.80 in trading only 74 shares and Massy Group added 18,100 shares valued at $1,239,850 to close at $68.50.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 2 stocks with the bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 stocks with offers that were lower.
Sagicor Financial dominates
Trading picked up on JSE – 12 up 6 down
Trading picked up Wednesday’s on the Jamaica Stock Exchange with 32 securities trading, the most for several weeks. The prices of 12 stocks rose and only 6 declined as 11,330,883 shares changed hands, valued at $56,346,945.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index rose by 592.06 points to 71,804.98 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index gained 662.02 points to close at 78,999.20.
Gains| Stocks gaining, with volume and last traded prices at the end of trading in the main market, are Berger Paints with 2,600 shares, declined by a cent to $1.66, Grace Kennedy with 593 shares, to close with a gain of $1.49 at $59, Jamaica Broilers with 3,001,000 units closed up a cent at $4.58, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 5,063 ordinary share closed with a 5 cents gain at $7, Kingston Wharves traded 6,329 shares and the price was up 2 cents to $5.02, Pulse Investments gained 5 cents to 35 cents in trading 100,000 shares, Sagicor Group had 290,622 units changing hands, at 25 cents higher at $9.40, Sagicor Real Estate Fund closed 20 cents higher with 57,536 units and ended at $6.60 and Scotia Group with 81,950 shares closed at $19 while gaining 30 cents.
Firm| The volume and last traded prices of the stocks in the main market to close without a change in price, are Cable & Wireless with 1,776 shares, closed at 39 cents, Caribbean Cement with 9,499 units closed at $3, Carreras with 25,460 units at $34.90, Gleaner 10,000 shares at $1.10, Jamaica Producers 869 units at $19, Mayberry Investments with 73,118 shares at $1.68, Pan Jamaican Investment 136,816 units at $48.50 and Seprod with 1,859 shares at $10.50.
Declines| The volume and last traded prices of stocks with losses at the end of trading in the main market, are National Commercial Bank 141,521 units at $18.16, down 4 cents, Proven Investments with 1,600 ordinary shares lost 0.0025 US cents to end at 17 US cents and Supreme Ventures with 5,000 shares falling 15 cents to $1.80.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 10,000 units at $3 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers down 7.50% preference share with 55,000 units closed at $2, there was no change in the prices of these.
Junior Market| The JSE Junior Market Index declined by 4.59 points to close at 632.93 as 10 stocks traded with 3 advancing and 3 declining.
Gains| Stocks recording gains at the end of trading in the junior market, are Blue Power with 50,000 shares and gained 1 cent to $9.06, Caribbean Cream had 1,833,661 units trading 10 cents higher at 75 cents and General Accident with 350,811 units closed with a 5 cents gain at $1.33.
Firm Trades| Stocks in the junior market that traded to close at the same price as the day before, are Jamaican Teas 7,218 units at $3.25, Knutsford Express 4,786,253 shares at $5.16, Lasco Distributors 149,349 units at $1.10 and Lasco Financial with 48,265 shares at $1.
Declines| Stocks declining in the junior market at the end of trading, are Cargo Handlers with 400 shares as the price slipped 10 cents to $13.90, Caribbean Producers with just 4,952 shares, losing 5 cents in the process, to $2.30 and Lasco Manufacturing with 81,763 units at 9 cents down at 91 cents.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 6 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks with offers that were lower.
Barita recovering slowly from Debt swap
Profit at Barita Investments doubled for the nine months to June this year, compared to same period of previous year. Profit amounted to $156 million against $79 million but profit for the latest quarter was down from $99 million in 2013 to $63 million before tax. After tax, profit dropped to $51 million versus $99 million in 2013, a period when no tax was booked.
The big turnaround in the nine months figures, is due mainly to a huge hit the 2013 profits got when Barita entered into the debt swap arrangement, with government of Jamaica, in the March quarter of 2013. There was no such charge in 2014.
The bottom-line performance came from net interest income that declined from $327 million for the 9 months to June 2013, to $260 million in the 2014 period and from Non-interest income of $249 million, up from $205 million, excluding a loss on investments of $117 million in 2013.
For the quarter, net interest income amounted to $75 million, compared with $78 million in the June quarter of 2013 and non-interest income of $105 million versus $117 million in 2013. Fees and commission income rose, Rita Humphrey-Lewin stated in her comments on the results that the launch of a new unit trust scheme in April, contributed to fee income. Foreign exchange earnings while slightly up in the June quarter over that of 2013, is down to $108 million from $125 million in 2013. Dividend income fell as well, form $20 million for the nine months last year, to $10 million.
Gains also came as a result of trading opportunities in an improved international market, Humphreys-Lewin said, in addition, the depreciation of the Jamaican dollar against the three major international currencies returned $109 million in foreign exchange gains for the year to June, but that was lower than the $125 million enjoyed in 2013.
Administrative costs, fell 9 percent from $172 million in the 9 month period of last year, to $156 million this year, but was up from $39 million in the 2013 quarter to $56 million in 2014. Staff costs is up 9 percent in the June quarter as well as for the nine months to $179 million, for the year to June.
Earnings per share for the June quarter was 11 cents compared to 22 cents from the June 2013 quarter, Barita should end up with earnings per share around 46-50 cents for the 2014 fiscal year and looks like improving that in 2015 all things being equal.
Barita’s assets grew for the nine months to June to $13.5 billion from $13.3 billion last year, over the same period shareholders’ equity grew from $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion.
Big improvement in Berger’s Q1 numbers
Revenues rose 10 percent, for Berger Paints Jamaica in the June quarter to $387 million, up from $353 million for June 2013. Loss after taxation, fell to only $372,000 from $3.16 million in 2013.
For the full of year to March this year, the company reported profit after corporation tax of $55 million, from revenues of $1.74 billion. IC Insider is forecasting earnings of 43 cents per share earnings, for the current year ending March 2015. Berger paid a dividend of 8 cents per share in July this year, based on the 2014 profit.
Cash and bank balances rose to $68 million at the end of June from $41 million in March and shareholders’ equity was $411 million.
Only two up three down on TTSE
Trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange was moderate with 13 securities changing hands of which 2 advanced, 3 declined and 8 traded firm with 144,693 stocks changing hands with a value of $5,351,417.
The Composite Index lost 0.56 points to close at 1,151.23, the All T&T Index fell by 1.14 points to close at 1,987.61 and the Cross Listed Index remained at 41.22.
Gains| Stocks increasing in price at the close are Trinidad Cement with 13,935 shares valued at $26,755 to close up a cent at $1.92 and West Indian Tobacco increased by a cent to end the day at $118.02 while trading 20,000 shares with a value of $2,360,400.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are ANSA McAl traded only 500 shares but lost a cent at $66.29. First Citizens suffered a loss of 19 cents to close at $35.80 while trading 4,827 shares and National Enterprises lost 4 cents in closing at $17.96 with 2,487 shares changing hands.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are Clico Investment Fund with 42,658 shares valued at $938,476 remained at $22, Guardian Holdings with 4,756 units to close at $14.30, Guardian Media with 1,000 shares to close at $19.75, Massy Group with 23,786 shares traded for $1,629,341 and ended at $68.50, Point Lisas Industrial Port to end at $4.20 with 2.845 shares, Prestige Holdings with 500 units ended at $9.40, Scotiabank with only 46 shares to close at $63.49 and Scotia Investments with 27,353 shares changing hands for a value of $38,294 and closed at $1.40
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 3 stocks with the bid higher than the last selling price and 2 stocks with offers that were lower.
6 junior market stocks gain on JSE
In Tuesday’s trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, the prices of 9 stocks rose of which 6 were from the junior market and 9 declined as 27 securities changed hands, resulting in 2,612,038 shares trading, valued at $20,761,039.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index dropped 706.20 points to 78,337.18 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index fell 789.66 points to close at 71,212.92.
Gains| Stocks that gained, the volume and last traded prices at the end of trading in the main market, are Carreras with 79,952 shares to close with a gain 30 cents at $34.90, Mayberry Investments with 77,500 units, 3 cents higher at $1.68 and National Commercial Bank with 48,815 shares with a 5 cents gain to $18.20.
Firm| The stocks close without a change in price with the volume and last traded prices in the main market, are Caribbean Cement with 10,312 units, closed at $3, Cable & Wireless with just 2,000 shares at 39 cents, Gleaner with 53,477 shares closing at $1.10, Jamaica Producers with 950 shares at $19, Seprod with 1,002 units at $10.50 and Supreme Ventures with 500 shares at $1.95.
Declines| The stocks with losses, volume and last traded prices at the end of trading in the main market, are Grace Kennedy with only 2,750 shares, gave up $1.49 to close at $57.51, Jamaica Broilers traded 32,199 units and lost 1 cent at $4.57, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 23,860 ordinary shares, lost 5 cents to end at $6.95, Pan Jamaican Investment with 1,765 shares as the price dropped $3.50 to $48.50, Proven Investments traded 1,600 ordinary shares at 0.0025 US cent lower at 17.25 US cents Sagicor Group with 1,073,164 shares closed 20 cents lower at $9.15 and Scotia Group 203,410 shares, at 5 cents lower at $18.70.
Preference| There was trading in Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share with 4,442 units at $3 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.25% preference share with 500 units at $2.50.
Junior Market| The JSE Junior Market Index rose by 6.88 points to close at 638 as 9 stocks traded with -6 advancing and 2 declining.
Gains| Stocks recording gains at the end of trading in the junior market, are Access Financial with 500 shares to gain 13 cents to $10.18, Caribbean Producers 4,090 shares with a gain of 5 cents to close at $2.35, Dolphin Cove with 215,014 shares, gained 5 cents to $7.60, Lasco Distributors with 43,551 units for 3 cents more at $1.10, Lasco Financial with 9,942 shares was up by 4 cents to $1 and Lasco Manufacturing ended with 46,169 shares changing hands at 10 cents higher to $1.
Firm Trades| Jamaican Teas with 3,920 shares traded at $3.25 and was the only active stock in the junior market, to close at the same price as the previous trading day.
Declines| Stocks declining in the junior market at the end of trading, are Derrimon Trading with 1,000 units changing hands, lost 23 cents to $2.05, a new 52 weeks low and General Accident with 669,654 shares lost 7 cents to $1.28.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 8 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks with offers that were lower.
Jamaican $ gains vs Can $ stable with US & Pound
In Tuesday’s forex trading, the selling rate for the Jamaican dollar was fairly stable against the US dollar and the Pound Sterling but made modest gains versus the Canadian dollar. Dealers sold over US$12 million more than they bought.
Authorized dealers bought the equivalent of US$31,547,793 versus US$53,329,347 on Monday, and sold the equivalent of US$43,845,589 compared to US$50,685,771 on Monday.
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$26,975,990 compared to US$47,852,405 on Monday. The buying rate for the US dollar rose 6 cents to $112.25 and US$39,677,380 was sold versus US$48,469,980 on Monday, the selling rate was up a cent to $112.83.
The Canadian dollar buying rate rose 38 cents to $101.81 with dealers buying C$2,523,040 and selling C$2,993,930 the selling rate declined by 13 cents to $102.99.
The Pound closed at $186.60, for the purchase of £1,198,793 as the rate rose 13 cents while £622,846 was sold, as the rate remained at $188.96. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$290,493 while selling was the equivalent of US$392,170.
Highs & Lows| The highest rate for buying the US dollar, fell 15 cents to $113.10, the lowest buying, the highest and the lowest selling rates remained unchanged, at $91.85, $117.70 and $91.85 respectively. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar declined by 70 cents to $103.30 and the lowest buying rate remained at $81.34. The highest selling rate rose 18 cents to $105.68 and the lowest selling rate was unchanged at $98. The highest buying rate for the British Pound declined 30 cents to $189.50, the lowest buying rate recovered $39.78 to $151.48, the highest selling rate fell $1.06, to $195.28 and lowest selling rate jumped back by $22.85 at $182.50.
Jamaican $ gains vs Pound stable with US
In Monday’s forex trading, the selling rate for the Jamaican dollar made gains against the British Pound but was stable against the US dollar as dealers bought nearly US$3 million more than they sold. On Friday, dealers bought $9 million more than they sold. 
Authorized dealers bought the equivalent of US$53,329,347 versus US$41,719,974 on Friday, and sold the equivalent of US$50,685,771 compared to US$32,548,314 on Friday.
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$47,852,405 compared to US$35,874,558 on Friday. The buying rate for the US dollar lost 14 cents to $112.19 and US$48,469,980 was sold versus US$28,416,014 on Friday, the selling rate was unchanged at $112.82.
The Canadian dollar buying rate fell 54 cents to $101.43 with dealers buying C$2,118,078 and selling C$1,018,014, the selling rate rose 17 cents to $103.12.
The Pound closed at $186.47, for the purchase of £1,986,266 as the rate slipped 85 cents while £492,793 was sold, as the rate declined 81 cents, to $188.96. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$260,568 while selling was the equivalent of US$459,939.
Highs & Lows| The highest rate for buying the US dollar, rose 5 cents to $113.25, the lowest buying, the highest and the lowest selling rates remained unchanged, at $91.85, $117.70 and $91.85 respectively. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar was up 65 cents to $104 and the lowest buying rate fell 25 cents to $81.34. The highest selling rate fell by $7.50 to $105.50 and the lowest selling rate was down 30 cents at $98. The highest buying rate for the British Pound declined 50 cents to $189.80, the lowest buying rate dropped $40.61 t0 $111.70, the highest selling rate rose $2.95 to $196.34 and lowest selling rate dived by $23.85 at $159.65.
20% revenue hike pumps up profit at Carreras
In 2013, revenues at cigarette company, Carreras, plummeted from $3.1 billion in June 2012 quarter to just $2.155 billion, a sharp 30 percent drop. IC Insider in reporting on the company’s performance last year, stated “that is not all coming from the recently announced smoking ban.
Profit after tax fared even worse than the fall in revenues, dipping by 40 percent. The interesting development, is that gross margin improved to 100 percent from 90 percent, similar quarter in 2012 and 86.5 percent for all of the 2013 fiscal year. Price increase earlier this year (2013) clearly had a negative impact with the company’s customers, and seemed to have taken a big bite out of sales. A look at sales in 2012, showed a big jump in the last half of the year, coming into the March quarter this year (2013), suggesting that distributors where stocking up on the product, in anticipation of price increase and stopped stock piling once the price adjustment was implemented, as such the fall off in sales may not be as bad as it appears on the surface”.
The company’s first quarter results for 2014, show a marked improvement over 2013, sale have recovered by 20 percent over the poor June quarter, last year, to hit $2.59 billion. Volumes are clearly down but not as bad as they were last year. Gross profit climbed by 15.6 percent to $1.257 billion and profit after tax ended at $589 million from $485 million, in 2013. Gross profit margin fell to 94 percent in the latest quarter from 100 percent last year.
The tax rate has been reduced to 25 percent thus helping more than normal with the after tax profit gain. Distribution cost fell from $207 million to $185 million but administrative cost was up, from $320 million to $372 million.
Carreras had cash funds of $3.3 billion at the end of June this year and tax recoverable of $870 million. They are also to recover interest on the taxes the government is to refund them for. The latest results points to earnings in excess of $5 per share for the current financial year.
Moderate & slow trading greets week on JSE
Trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange was slow and moderate on Monday, the prices of 7 stocks rose and 5 declined as 22 securities changed hands, resulting in 2,489,639 stock units trading, valued at $5,644,710.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index fell moderately by 88.81 points to 71,919.12 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index lost 99.30 points to close at 79,126.841.
Gains| Stocks with gains, volume and last traded prices at the end of trading in the main market are, Carreras with a 10 cents gain to $34.60 as it traded 78,100 shares, Jamaica Producers with 7,288 shares to close with a gain of $1.50 at $19, Mayberry gained 10 cents to close at 1.65, with 77,450 units changing hands, National Commercial Bank had only 235 units changing hands, at 15 cents higher to $18.15 and Scotia Investments saw only 4,000 shares changing hands, as the price inched up 3 cents to $21.18.
Firm| The stocks with volume and last traded prices in the main market to close without a change in price are, Caribbean Cement with 150 units at $3, Gleaner with 1,251,430 shares at $1.10, Grace with only 350 units and closed at $59, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 1,000 ordinary shares traded at $7 and Seprod 1,500 units closed at $10.50.
Declines| The stocks with losses, volume and last traded prices at the end of trading in the main market, are Cable & Wireless with 765,000 shares closing at 39 cents as the price lost a cent, Jamaica Broilers lost a cent to end at $4.58 with 3,000 shares, Sagicor Group traded 18,500 shares as the price was lower by 14 cents to close at $9.35 and Sagicor Real Estate Fund lost $50 cents to end at $6.40 while trading 13,000 units.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 16,815 units at $3 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference share 60,000 units at $2.
Junior Market| The JSE Junior Market Index rose by 1.25 points to close at 630.64 as only 4 stocks traded with 2 advancing and 1 declining.
Gains| Stocks recording gains at the end of trading in the junior market, are, Lasco Distributors that traded 40,000 units to close at $1.07, up a cent and Paramount Trading closing up a cent at $2.69 while trading 105,000 shares.
Firm Trades| General Accident with 33,000 units at $1.35 is the only junior market stock that traded to close at the same price as the trading day before.
Declines| Only one stocks declined in the junior market at the end of trading as Caribbean Producers traded 12,523 units at $2.30, down by 8 cents.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 8 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 stocks with offers that were lower.
