In Mondays trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, MVL Stockbrokers purchased 5 million Scotia Group shares at $20 each, amounting to $100 million. Towards the end of the close in the market, the trades were no longer posted.
A check with the manager of the stock exchange Marlene Street Forrest, stated that “the matter of the trade was brought to my attention and on checking it was discovered that the broker incorrectly entered the order as 5 million units when it should have been 500,000 units. Based on the investigation done and the information gathered, all the selling brokers were contacted to get there approval about the cancellation. This is the norm is such cases, where cancellation is contemplated as such the trades were reversed”. Instructions were given to place orders for $5 million each of Carreras, National Commercial Bank and Scotia shares, Ed Mckie of head of MVL Stockbrokers informed IC Insider. The orders were on behalf of an institution not a pension fund, IC Insider was advised.
In early trading in the market today, there were three significant bids to buy 5 million units of each Carreras at $34, National Commercial Bank at $18 and Scotia at $20. Scotia trades were the only one executed, the other bids were withdrawn before any trade took place. At the end of trading none of the Scotia Shares were traded and the bid was removed. In all likelihood the bids for the smaller quantities will resurface shortly.
$100m of Scotia Group trade cancelled
72% Customer Satisfaction for CWJ
Cable & Wireless Jamaica (CWJ) trading as Lime, ranked highest in customer satisfaction among all of Jamaica’s utility providers, according to a survey by the Office of Utilities Regulation, OUR CWJ said in a release recently.
According to the report the Regulator said 72% of respondents reported that they were satisfied doing business with Cable & Wireless.
Among its telecommunications rivals Digicel, Flow and other utility providers, customers gave the company, the highest marks for product quality and accurate billing and placed them on top for customer care that makes them feel valued and respected.
“We have consistently put customers at the center of our strategic commercial decision-making and these objective survey results are the just reward for those efforts.” Garfield Sinclair Cable & Wireless CEO stated in response to this latest round positive public perception.
Cable & Wireless also received coveted recognition for being the only Telecommunications provider to register a double-digit increase in service quality over the 12-month review period.
5m share orders for Carreras, NCB & Scotia Group
MVL Stockbrokers are in the market early Monday with three significant bids to buy Carreras at $34, National Commercial Bank at $18.12 and Scotia at $20.
The bids are for 5 million units of each of the stock. So far they bought all but 1,700 of the 2,618,405 Scotia Bank Shares at $20.
Information gleaned recently is that a pension fund was in the market for large blocks of shares and the bids of such size could be connected with the pension fund needs.
On Friday, Scotia Investment bought all the Scotia shares to tradefor parties connected with the brokerage house.
Calculating Treasury Bill interest income
New issues of Treasury Bills are offered on a regular basis by governments all over the world, to fund their short term financial obligations, but not everyone knows how the income payable on them are computed. Unlike regular bonds where the rate of interest to be paid is stated on the face of the instrument, that is not the case with treasury bills. .
The bills are usually of 30 days, 90 days, 182 days and 365-days duration but may vary by a day or two in each case. The rate of interest paid on these instruments is determined by an auction system. At these auctions investors predetermine what rate of interest they want and made an offer in writing ahead of the closing time prior to the bids being opened. The lowest rates are satisfied first. If the amount offered for sale by the government is oversubscribed, then those with rates that are higher than the rates on those amounts that equate to the amount offered, are rejected.
These bills are sold at a discount below the face value that the holder receives at maturity and requires the buyers to quote their bids lower than the maturing amount. For example one may bid at a price of $97 per $100 of 91 days Treasury Bills giving a discount of 3 percent. The discount rate is the difference between the lower price paid for a security and the security’s face value, adjusted for the maturity of the issue. It is calculated as follows:
((face value-purchase price)/face value) x (365/term) x 100 = discount rate. Using this example the discount rate for an instrument of 91 days will be computed as follows: ((100-97)/100) x (365/91) x 100 = 12.03%. ((face value-purchase price)/purchase price) x (365/term) x 100 = yield. The annualized yield, or the actual rate of return per year, is calculated as follows: ((100-97)/97) x (365/91) x 100 = 12.41%.
The amount of treasury bills offered, are published by the central banks who act on behalf of the governments and may be purchased either directly by investors or through brokers. There are usually set dates each month for these issues. Information published for each tender are those relating to the dates of issue, maturity, the closing and settlement.
CWJ revenues rise 37% push CWC Plc
Cable & Wireless Jamaica grew mobile customers with continued momentum from last year, by 37 percent, Cable & Wireless Communications PLC (CWC) said in a press release, in their first quarter interim management statement for the June 2014 quarter.
The Jamaican growth, pushed the mobile customers in Jamaica to around 750,000 at June, up from 705,000 at March this year and helped to move mobile subscribers was up 20 percent, for the overall CWC group on like-for-like basis, the statement indicated. “LIME growth was driven by continued strong subscriber additions in Jamaica, where revenue grew 34 percent at constant currency”. For the June 2013 quarter, the Jamaican operations saw growth of 22 percent in mobile customers and 10 percent increase in revenue. The growth last year came at a jump of 64 percent in subscriber acquisition cost, the company said last year after the completion of the June quarter.
Group Trading Performance| CWC said that mobile revenue which now represents 55 percent of Group revenue, was up 4 percent across the Group in the First Quarter, with increases in Cayman of 11 percent, following the successful introduction of LTE services; and in Panama 5 percent, where increased advertising drove mobile data 21 percent. Panama also achieved mobile ARPU growth for the first time in five quarters following increased focus on pricing.
Broadband and TV revenue, hampered by slower network speeds, grew only 3 percent and this is a key area where we expect to see improved performance over time as a result of the investments we are making under Project Marlin. The modest growth in Broadband and TV was more than offset by continued decline in fixed voice revenue.
Revenue in the B2B/B2G business – Managed Services – was impacted by reduced Government activity in Panama ahead of elections in May, but CWC management say they remain confident that the new management team and organisational focus will come to fruition later in the year. BTC in the Bahamas delivered solid financial performance alongside improved network reliability during the quarter.
Upgrade| CWCP said “we have upgraded 126 of our mobile sites in Jamaica since 1 April 2014 and expect to complete our 4G network later this year. The fibre build-out in Cayman is complete with over 11,000 homes passed. In Barbados we have now passed 26,000 homes with high-speed fibre. In Panama we successfully launched Direct-to-Home TV and ‘Movil Cash’ products, and, although it is early in the programme, we are exceeding our sales expectations”.
US$3.5M more bought than sold but J$ falls
In Friday’s forex trading, funds bought by dealers, were US$3.5 million more than the amount they sold as dealers bought the equivalent of US$41,124,424 versus US$29,237,131 on Thursday, and sold the equivalent of US$37,641,679 compared to US$34,773,160 on Thursday.
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$37,161,136 compared to US$24,787,518 on Thursday as the buying rate for the US dollar, rose 13 cents to $112.45 and sold US$34,873,810 versus US$29,503,394 on Thursday, as the rate gained 4 cents to $112.87.
The Canadian dollar buying rate fell 85 cents, to $102.62 with dealers buying C$1,128,685 and selling C$673,047, as the rate dipped $1.27 to $106.16.
The Pound closed at $189.64, for the purchase of £1,613,433, as the rate dropped 27 cents while £1,132,114 was sold, as the rate climbed 59 cents, to $192.08. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$212,185 while selling was the equivalent of US$215,776.
Highs & Lows| The highest rate for buying the US dollar, closed with a rise of 20 cents at $113.30, the lowest buying, the highest selling and the lowest selling rates remained unchanged at $91.85, $117.70 and $91.85 respectively. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar fell 20 cents to $105 and the lowest buying rate gained 4 cents to $83.25. The highest selling rate inched up by 5 cents to $107.32 and the lowest selling rate was up 5 cents to $100.30. The highest buying rate for the British Pound was unchanged at $192, the lowest buying rate dropped 75 cents to $153.22, the highest selling rate fell $3.75 to $194.73 and lowest selling rate recovered $28.01 to $184.50.
J$ slips against US$ & British Pound
Dealers sold US$34,873,810 on Friday for 4 cents more than they did on Thursday with the rate closing at J$112.87 to One US dollar
The Canadian dollar fetched $1.27 less than the previous day as customers bought C$625,477 at J$104.89 and £1,926,6160 was sold at J$192.08, 59 cents higher than on Thursday
Jamaica Stock Exchange reports small loss
Marlene Street Forrest – Manager of The JSE
The improved position was aided by a write back of bad debt provision of $3.9 million in the latest quarter. After providing for taxation, a loss of $3.2 million was incurred for 2014 year to date versus $4 million in 2013. The bottom line performance, emanated from a $10.5 million revenue increase for the quarter and $23 million for the six months.
Income from cess, fell in both quarters but fee income was up by $11 million in the latest quarter and $20 million for the half year. Of the year to date increase, staff compensation ate up $10 million, pushing this item to $87 million for the six months. Overall expenses rose by $21 million to $182 million of 13 percent for the year to date.
The stock exchange has no borrowed funds with has equity of $558 million. $380 million of its assets are in cash or other forms of investment instruments.
The virtue of this stock is not to be found in the present results. Investors should be quietly acquiring the stock ahead of what is going to be much brighter days for the exchange when trading picks up. No one knows for sure when trading will pick up, but when it does it may be too late to acquire volume at prices under $2 where the stock last traded at.
11 stocks rose as Market index jumps
Broker house, Scotia Investments was the only buyer of the 875,724 Scotia Group shares that change hands in Friday’s trading, on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. The prices of the stock rose, to close at $20, but traded as high as $20.99.
In the overall market, the prices of 11 stocks rose and 8 declined, as 26 securities changed hands, resulting in 5,240,852 shares trading, valued at $35,553,505.
Main Market| The main indices closed sharply higher in Friday’s trading as heavily weighted Scotia Group jumped to close higher by the end of trading. The JSE Market Index jumped by 1,598.01 points to 71,711.80 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index climbed 1,786.85 points to close at 78,895.01.
Gains| Stocks with gains, volume and last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market, are Cable & Wireless with 210,772 shares up 4 cents to 30 cents, Carreras 317,256 units, gaining 15 cents to $34, Jamaica Broilers 308 units, up 4 cents to $4.61, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 10,000 ordinary shares, up by 5 cents to $7, National Commercial Bank that released results after trading on Thursday, closed up by 6 cents at $18.06 while trading 51,599 shares. The stock closed with the bid of $18.11 to buy 116,978 units. Pan Jamaican Investment with 1,313 stock units, gained 8 cents to $48.10, Sagicor Real Estate Fund traded 10,000 units and gained 1 cent to $6.36 and Scotia Group gained $1.30 to $20.
Firm| The stocks with volume and last traded prices in the main market to close without a price change, are Caribbean Cement with 1,600 shares at $2.50, Desnoes & Geddes 646 shares at $4, Jamaica Producers with 5,367 shares at $17.51, Sagicor Group 121,247 units at $9, Seprod 1,276 shares at $10.50 and Supreme Ventures 12,020 units at $1.95.
Declines| The stocks with losses, volume and last traded prices at the end of trading in the main market, are Gleaner with 10,300 shares, down a cent at $1.11, Grace Kennedy with 5,000 shares, lost $1.05 to end at $55, Hardware & Lumber 800 units, down 15 cents at $9, Mayberry Investments 4,080 units at $1.55, for a 1 cent fall.
Preference| Jamaica Public Service 5% C preference share traded 42,102 units and was up by a cent to $3.
Junior Market| The JSE Junior Market Index declined by 21.99 points to close at 627.28 as 7 stocks traded with 2 advancing and 4 declining.
Gains| Stocks recording gains at the end of trading in the junior market, with the closing prices, are Blue Power 5,320 shares and the price was up by 5 cents to $9.10 and Lasco Manufacturing with 3,091,640 shares the price gained 10 cents to $1 but it traded at a 52 weeks low of 85 cents before recovering by the end of trading.
Firm Trades| The stock in the junior market that traded to close at the same price as the day before is General Accident with 99,982 shares at $1.46.
Declines| Stocks declining in the junior market at the end of trading with the closing prices are, Caribbean Producers with 430,000 shares with a 5 cents loss to $2.45, Honey Bun with only 100 shares to fall by 60 cents to $2.30. This stock was poised to fall sharply after it released disappointing third quarter results and the offer gradually melted away, as bids were at very low levels. Lasco Distributors with 25,000 shares lost 9 cents to end at a new 52 weeks low of $1.10 and Lasco Financial with 7,400 units was down 8 cent to 92 cents, after the company posted a 20 percent increase in its first quarter results to June.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 7 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 stocks with offers that were lower.
Scotia Group pushes All Jamaica Index by 1,786.85
Broker house Scotia Investments was the only buyer of the 875,724 Scotia Group shares that change hands in Friday’s trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. The prices of the stocks rose to close at $20, but traded as high as $20.99.
For the overall market, the prices of 11 stocks rose and 8 declined as 26 securities changed hands, resulting in 5,240,852 shares trading, valued at $35,553,505.
Main Market indices| The main indices closed sharply higher in Friday’s trading as heavily weighted Scotia Group, jumped to close at $20 by the end of trading. The JSE Market Index surged 1,598.01 points to 71,711.80 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index exploded by 1,786.85 points to close at 78,895.01.
National Commercial Bank that released results after trading on Thursday, closed up by 6 cents to $18.06 while trading 51,599 shares and closed with a bid of $18.11 to buy 116,978 units.
