Trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange on Monday, the trading day after the market closed for Emancipation day, was low with 13 securities changing hands of which only 1 advanced, 6 declined and 6 traded firm, with 59,661 stocks changing hands at a value of $1,557,124.
The Composite Index lost 1.86 points to close at 1,158.95, the All T&T Index fell by 3.59 points to close at 2,002.32 and the Cross Listed Index fell 0.02 points to end at 41.31.
Gains| Stocks increasing in price at the close, are National Flour Mills in contributing 9,834 units with a value of $10,326 and gained 5 cents, to end at $1.05.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading, are Clico Investment Fund that traded 8,544 units valued at $183,775, the price declined by 10 cents to end at $21.60, First Citizens traded 2,165 units to close down by 66 cents at $36, Prestige Holdings shed a cent, while trading 2,000 units at $9.40, Republic Bank added 7,666 shares valued at $935,142, but the price fell by a cent to $121.99, Sagicor Financial Corporation with 12,500 shares changing hands for a value of $83,075, closed at $6.63, down 3 cents, Scotiabank traded 771 units but the price slid 73 cents, to close at a new 52 weeks low of $65.99.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are Agostini’s with 500 units, to close at $17.45, Angostura Holdings with 2,000 shares ended at $12.75, Grace Kennedy traded only 248 units at $3.45, Guardian Holdings with 11,000 shares traded for $157,300, ended at $14.30, while, National Commercial Bank with 833 shares, closed at $1.05 and Trinidad Cement closed at $1.90 while trading 1,600 shares.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 3 stocks with the bids higher than their last selling price and no stock closed with an offer that was lower.
Declines dominate post emancipation trades
Strong growth still evident at Access
The public may get the impression that the dispute at the directorship level, may be affecting Access Financial Services badly, that is not showing in the profit numbers to date. 
On the surface, it may appear that a profit increase of only 13 percent, in the June quarter could be a by-product of the dispute, considering the robust 30 percent increase in profit in the March quarter, but that would be a wrong conclusion. Revenues grew 35 percent in the second quarter, to reach $267 million. Revenues grew from of $198 million for June 2013 and from $254 million in the 2014 March quarter. For the six months to June, revenues climbed 40 percent to $521 million up from $371 million in 2013, continuing its strong growth trajectory since the shares were listed in 2010. The revenue growth, was fueled primarily from interest on loans that climbed to $473 million from $347 million in 2013.
A $50 million increased provision for bad loans to $75 million, for the June quarter versus last year June quarter, was the major reason for the slower profit increase, in the quarter.
Access is still set to deliver around $1.50 earnings per share, for the current year. With equity of $750 million, the company is likely to enjoy a very strong 50 percent return on equity for the current year. The stock last traded at $8.97 but had a bid of $9.15, to buy a small quantity of the company’s stock. The stock is tightly held and is difficult to get at times. The company just declared a dividend of 36.5 cents per share payable to shareholders on September 1st.
Loans on the books at June is at $1.1 billion, a major jump from the $776 million at June 2013. Total borrowed funds used in the financing of the business, amount to $542 million compared to $360 million in June last year, with cash at $87 million.
Argentina’s recent debt default -consequencies
The government of Argentina has defaulted its public debt – yet again. It is bound to have unfavourable consequences for the people of Argentina, who are likely to see their currency lose value, and many will lose their jobs.
Argentina’s vineyard
“The current political situation in Argentina is also looking positive: Mrs. Kirchner’s, the country’s president’s popularity is at an all-time low, she can’t be re-elected, and doesn’t have the power to nominate her successor” Steve Rosberg, an Argentinian resident stated. Rosberg goes on to state that “as a result, and as a reaction of her leftist rhetoric and the current crisis, the four most probable candidates – those who have real chances of being elected – are all market friendly, and of a centre to centre-right inclination. They are all likely to make the necessary reforms to get out of this default, and to pursue foreign investment. We believe they don’t really have a choice, except in a matter of degrees. It has been a slow and painful decade with the Kirchners, who are leaving the country pretty much in the same condition they found it in 2003. Now, like then, there will be great opportunities to invest in Argentina”.
Grace’s 21% profit gain obscures pressures
Grace reports a 21 percent increase in profit for the six months to June, this year, but the net result obscures pressures in many of the divisions within the sprawling group and mainly a reduction in the tax rate to 25 percent from 30 percent last year beefed up the bottom-line.
A 15 percent increase in second quarter revenues bettered the 12 percent increase in the first quarter this year, helping to produce pretax profit of $1.3 billion in the second quarter for an increase of 8.6 percent over 2013, down from 12 percent increase, in the first quarter. For the six months, pretax profit amounted to $2.58 billion versus $2.33 billion in 2013. Profit after tax is up 20 percent for the June quarter to $845 million compared with $703 million in 2013, and for the six months, $1.68 billion or 21 percent ahead of 2013. Earnings per share of $5.07 for the half year, seems set to end up around $11 per share for the year, from ongoing earnings.
Operating profit| Operating profit margin before other income slipped in the latest quarter to 4.34 percent down from 4.97 percent in 2013, for the year to date its 4.5 percent, the same as in the previous year. The reduced margin in the second quarter may not seem like much but it helped in ensuring that operating profit before other income was only up less than 1 percent compared with the revenue increase of 12 percent.
Return on equity is working out at around 11 percent, which is not high by Jamaican standards, and is indicative that management has a lot of work to do, to get it up to more acceptable levels.
Revenues| For the second quarter, revenues came in at $19.7 billion, better than the $18.8 billion generated in the first quarter. For the year to date revenues are up to $38.5 billion or 14 percent over that of 2013. The bulk of the revenue increase came from the Food trading division with a 16.2 percent increase and money services of 18.7 percent, with the other divisions enjoying moderate increases at best but with most being flat.
Balance sheet| Grace’s balance sheet shrunk, with the sale of the investment arm to Proven Investments, they now boast total assets of $93.5 billion, down from $108.6 billion at December last year. Subsequent to the quarter, Grace announced the acquisition of a new subsidiary in the USA, La Fe Foods with revenues of US$80 million per annum or J$9 billion.
The company’s stock last traded at $56.50, at around 5 times earnings, providing upside potential when the local stock market gets going, for it to deliver decent gains for patient investors.
Cost jumps sharply dents Republic Bank’s profit
Republic Bank’s assets grew by 6 percent for the year to June fueled by loans amounting to $26.6 billion that grew by 8.5 percent to over the same period.
The growth in assets and loans did not translate to increased profit. In fact profit was only saved from falling, by a turnaround in the result of associated companies moving from a loss of $74 million to a small profit of $7 million in the quarter and from a loss of $70 million in the nine months to a profit of $34 million. Profit before associated company results is down from $489 million to $426 million for the latest quarter and for the nine months, $1.22 billion from $1.27 billion. Net profit due to the bank’s shareholders is $308 million in the June quarter, compared with $305 million in 2013 and for the nine months, $869 million compared with $858 million. The results compare favorably with Trinidad’s Scotia Bank that suffered a 17 percent decline in profits for the 3 months to April and 7.5 percent for the six months.
Expenses| Operating expenses rose 18 percent, to reach $454 million for the quarter and 24.5 percent for the nine months, well ahead of the gain in revenues which is flat in the latest quarter but up 10 percent for the nine months. Interestingly, operating cost increased by 6.6 percent in the first quarter of the financial year. In the March quarter, Republic made a provision of $185 million writing down the value of goodwill on its investments in Barbados, resulting in a 45 percent jump in in operating expenses for the quarter. Countering the write off was a gain of $210 million, from sale of Visa Shares in the March quarter. What is clear is that results for 2014 will be around the same level as in 2013 of $1.297 billion or $7.30 per share. Republic Bank’s stock last traded at $122 each at a PE of 17.8.
Scotia finally drops, down $1.65 on TTSE
In Thursday’s trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange, Scotiabank finally, gave up a fair amount of the past gain in stock price that was no longer merited, based on the fall in second quarter results, dropping $1.65 to close at $66.72 for a new 52 weeks low. The stock has been setting, to suffer a sharp fall, for three weeks but small volumes, resulted in the price inching down each day that it traded.
Elsewhere in trading 16 securities changed hands of which 3 advanced, 7 declined and 6 traded firm with 280,074 stocks changing hands, with a value of $4,257,707. The Composite Index lost 3.93 points to close at 1,160.81, the All T&T Index fell by 6.47 points, to close at 2,005.91 and the Cross Listed Index fell by a mere 0.18 points to end at 41.33.
Gains| Stocks increasing in price at the close, are Ansa Merchant Bank with 1,237 shares closing up 1 cents at $39.11, a new 52 weeks high. Clico Investment Fund traded 8,244 units, valued at $178,895, advanced by 2 cents to end at $21.70, Point Lisas Industrial Port Development gained 5 cents, to end at $4.20, a new 52 weeks high, while trading 13,400 shares with a value of $194,772.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are First Citizens Bank traded 350 units at $36.66, to decline by 34 cents, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 20,571 shares, the price lost 4 cents to end at 41 cents, followed by Massy Group with 4,196 units at $69 after losing 40 cents, National Flour Mills traded 1,000 shares to close at $1 for a loss of a cent, Sagicor Financial Corporation contributed 29,245 shares as it lost a cent, to end at $6.66, Scotiabank with a volume of 40,719 shares traded for $2,717,546, closed down $1.65 at $66.72 and Trinidad Cement with 139,410 shares changing hands, for a value of $264,879, closed 3 cents lower at $1.90.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading, are Angostura Holdings with 500 shares at $12.75, Grace Kennedy exchanged 6,000 shares to close at $3.45, Guardian Holdings with 10,202 shares valued at $145,889 to end at $14.30, National Commercial Bank contributed just 2,000 shares as the price closed at $1.05, National Enterprises traded 450 units to close at $18 and West Indian Tobacco with 2,550 shares at $118.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 2 stocks with the bid higher than the last selling price and 1 stock with the offer that was lower.
J$ loss value but with more buying than selling
In Thursday’s forex trading, funds bought by dealers, were US$6.5 million more than the amount they sold as dealers bought the equivalent of US$39,624,611 versus US$26,608,863 on Wednesday, and sold the equivalent of US$33,192,211 compared to US$28,847,941 on Wednesday.
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$33,363,187 compared to US$22,632,506 on Wednesday. The buying rate for the US dollar rose 19 cents to $112.36 and US$29,758,889 was sold versus US$26,598,009 on Wednesday, as the rate increased by 6 cent to $112.85. The Canadian dollar buying rate rose $1.77, to $103.54 with dealers buying C$3,587,157 and selling C$2,547,374, the rate fell 58 cents to $103.86. The British Pound closed at $188.19, for the purchase of £1,423,837, as the rate dropped 99 cents while £568,086 was sold, as the rate increased 18 cents, to $191.11. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$571,212 while selling was the equivalent of US$126,760.
Highs & Lows| The highest rate for buying the US dollar, fell 5 cents rise to $113.25, the lowest buying, and the highest selling rates remained unchanged at $91.85 and $117.70 respectively, the lowest selling rose $1.45 to $93.30. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar declined 39 cents to $105.55 and the lowest buying rate lost 63 cents to $81.96. The highest selling was unchanged at $106.50 and the lowest selling rate was down 75 cents to $98.75. The highest buying rate for the British Pound remained at $191.50, the lowest buying rate declined by 42 cents to $152.47, the highest selling rate rose $1.96 to $196.56 and lowest selling rate declined $2.40 to $183.70.
Jamaica’s trade deficit falls, March’s better
Jamaica enjoyed a reduction in its trade for the first four months of this year, compared with the same period in 2013. The trade deficit amounted to US$1.34 billion, down from US$1.46 billion in 2013.
The country imported goods valued at US$1.86 billion for the January to April 2014 period, a decrease of US$199 million or 9.7 percent and exported US$77 million or 12.9 percent less for the January to April 2014 period, representing a big improvement over the change to March. Total exports for the 4 months came in at S$521 million, down from US$598 million in the similar period in 2013.
For the three months to March this year, imports fell by US$281 million and exports were down US$111 million to US$358 million, down from US$469 million in the 2013.
Carreras pays out $9.09 in last 12 months
Carreras declared an interim dividend of $1.20 per stock unit, to be paid out of accumulated profits on September 4, to stockholders on the Register of Members as at August 18, 2014.The Ex-dividend date is August 14, 2014.
Carreras last declared a special capital cash distribution of $1.34 per stock unit to be paid on July 31. The latest approved dividend will bring the total payments the company made to shareholders since August last year, to $9.09 per share. Carreras traded today at $34.20.
Access Financial Services declared an interim dividend of 36.5 cents payable on September 1, to stockholders on record at August 18, 2014. The Ex-dividend date is August 14. Access last paid 31 cents per share on August 15, last year as dividend. Access last traded at $8.97.
Main market slips to close week
In Thursday’s trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange the prices of 7 stocks rose and 9 declined as 28 securities changed hands, resulting in 2,930,479 shares trading valued at $16,326,411, ahead of the emancipation holiday on Friday.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index declined by 321.93 points to 71,308.03 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index fell 359.97 points to close at 78,443.53.
Gains| Stocks with gains, volume and last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market, are
Berger Paints with 7,338 shares to close with a gain of 4 cents at $1.66, Caribbean Cement with 2,500 units changing hands with a gain of 20 cents to end at $2.60, Carreras 14,184 shares with a gain of 49 cents to $34.20, Proven Investments 350 US dollar ordinary shares, gained 2 US cents to 18 US cents, Sagicor Group with 14,500 units, to close with a gain of 5 cents, at $9.20 and Sagicor Real Estate Fund with only 100 units, the price moved up 5 cents to $6.65.
Firm| The stocks with volume and last traded prices in the main market to close without a change in price, are Cable & Wireless with 1,927 shares at 30 cents, Grace Kennedy 1,745 shares at $56.50, Hardware & Lumber 4,550 shares at $9, Mayberry Investments 1,020 units at $1.55, Scotia Investments 7,000 units at $21 and Seprod 10,048 shares at $10.50.
Declines| The stocks with losses, volume and last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market, are Ciboney with 40,000 shares, declining by 1 cent to 8 cents, Desnoes & Geddes 2,165 shares, down 53 cents to $4.02, Jamaica Broilers 38,680 units to close 6 cents lower at $4.57, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 46,233 ordinary shares, declined by 9 cents to $6.96, Kingston Wharves 91,000 shares, the price declined by 25 cents to $5, National Commercial Bank with 503,434 shares, declined by 3 cents to $18.90, Pan Jamaican Investment 280 shares, with the price slipping a cent to $48.02 and Scotia Group with 8,906 shares, eased down by a cents to $19.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share, traded 251,125 units at $3, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference share with 1,109,863 units at $2 and Proven Investments 8% preference share with 9,700 units at $5.05.
Junior Market| The JSE Junior Market Index rose by 0.16 points to close at 610.04 as 5 stocks traded with one advancing and one declining.
Gains| Lasco Distributors is the only junior market stock gaining at the end of trading, as 500 shares traded to close 1 cents higher at $1.01
Firm Trades| Stocks in the junior market that traded to close at the same price as the day before are, Caribbean Producers 458,858 shares at $2.45, Honey Bun with 13,942 shares at $2.30 and Lasco Financial 3,340 units, to close at 90 cents.
Declines| General Accident with 287,191 shares, was the only stock declining in the junior market at the end of trading, as the price slipped by a cent to $1.36
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 13 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks with offers that were lower.
