Trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange saw moderate price changes and accounted for 14 securities changing hands of which 3 advanced, 2 declined and 9 traded firm, with 273,809 stocks changing hands, with a value of $9,839,147.
The Composite Index lost 0.26 points to close at 1,165.02, the All T&T Index rose fell by just 0.53 points to close at 2,010.52 and the Cross Listed Index remained unchanged at 41.83.
Gains| Stocks increasing in price at the close are Ansa Merchant Bank that traded 21508 shares valued at $840,102 to close with a gain of 2 cents to end at $39.06, First Citizens gained 8 cents to close at $35.11 with 94 units changing hands, Unilever Caribbean gained 22 cents to end the day at $62.56 with 244 shares trading as the stock traded at a new 52 weeks high.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are Angostura Holdings with 50,094 shares changing hands for a value of $638,699, closed with a loss of 23 cents at 12.75 followed by Scotiabank declined further with a loss of 3 cents to close at $68.45 for anew 52 weeks low, with 1,000 units.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are Clico Investment Fund traded 111,940 shares valued at $2,426,776 remained at $21.70, while Grace Kennedy close at $3.45 with 610 units changing hands, Guardian Holdings traded 1,684 units to end at $14.40, Jamaica Money Market Brokers added 20,000 shares to close at 45 cent, Massy Group with 3,752 units closed at $69.50, Sagicor Financial Corporation with 1,114 shares closed at $6.52, Republic Bank with 45,219 shares traded for $5,518,979 to close at $122.05, Trinidad Cement traded 5,000 units to close at $1.95 and LJ Williams B shares traded 11,250 shares to close at 90 cents.
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.
Moderate price changes on TTSE
8 stocks rose & 2 fell on TTSE
Trading on the Trinidad Stock Exchange was dominated by advancing stocks. Stocks of 15 securities changed hands of which 8 advanced, 2 declined and 5 traded firm, 433,166 stocks changed hands, with a value of $2,425,082.
The Composite Index rose 0.18 points, to close at 1,165.28, the All T&T Index rose fell just 0.16 points, to close at 2,011.05 and the Cross Listed 
Index increased by a mere 0.07 points, to end at 41.83.
Gains| Stocks increasing in price at the close, are Clico Investment Fund trading 14,297 shares valued at $309,934, the price advanced by 3 cents to end at $21.70, First Citizens Bank traded 1,120 shares, to close at $35.03 with a cent gain, Grace Kennedy with 250 shares gained a cent and closed at $3.45, Guardian Holdings gained 9 cents to end the day at $14.40, with 6,544 units changing hands. Massy Group gained a cent with 5,645 units traded, to end at $69.51, while Sagicor Financial Corporation added 13,242 shares valued at $86,338, to close 2 cents higher at $6.52, Scotia Investments with 3,500 shares, was up a cent in closing at $1.55 and Unilever Caribbean with 1,990, shares, gained 5 cents close at $62.35, a new 52 weeks high.
Declines| The stocks declining at the end of trading are Scotiabank that lost 17 cents, to close at $68.48, a new 52 weeks low, while trading 445 shares and LJ Williams 10 cents A had shares, had 25,000 units changing hands, to close with a loss of 3 cents at 26 cents.
Firm Trades| Stocks closing with prices unchanged at the end of trading are ANSA McAL with 100 shares, to close $66.30, Firstcaribbean International Bank with a volume of 43,968 shares traded for $220,240, closed at $5, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 2,000 units, closed at 45 cents, Republic Bank with 4,110 shares changing hands, closed at $122.05 and Trinidad Cement with 310,955 shares changing hands for a value of $606,362, closed at $1.95.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 2 stocks with the bids higher than the last selling prices and 3 stocks with offers that were lower.
Very slow trading on JSE
Trading activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange was very light on Wednesday, with only 1,218,280 shares trading, valued at $6,917,508. The prices of 5 stocks rose and 11 declined as 19 securities changed hands. Main Market| The JSE Market Index declined by 421.31 points to 70,364.82 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index fell 471.09 points, to close at 77,388.85.
Gains| Stocks recording gains at the end of trading in the main market, are Jamaica Broilers with 14,228 units to close with a 3 cents gain at $4.60, Mayberry Investments, with a gain of 5 cents while trading 6,000 shares, to close at $1.55, Sagicor Group with 333,000 shares, closed with a gain of 2 cents at $9.05 and Scotia Group traded 10,000 shares and close with 1 cent gain, at $18.51.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in price, are Caribbean Cement with 10,619 shares, closing at $2.25 and Seprod with 10,000 units traded, to closed at $10.50.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.50% preference share traded 28,000 units, to close at a cent lower at $3.50 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share, with 313,150 units changing hands, closed 2 cents down at $3.01.
Declines| The stocks that declined in the main market, are Carreras with 2,032 shares and the price fell $1.10 to close at $34, Desnoes & Geddes with 21,750 shares, declined by 25 cents to close at $4.30, Grace Kennedy traded 6,048 units and declined by $1 to close at $55, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 2,040 ordinary shares, declining by 5 cents to close at $6.95 and National Commercial Bank with 87,114 units, declined by 35 cents to close at $18.15.
Junior Market| The JSE Junior Market Index declined by 6.59 points, to close at 686.07 as 6 stocks traded with 1 advancing and 3 declining.
Gains| only one stock gained at the end of trading in the junior market with KLE Group trading 2,112 shares to close 5 cents higher at 95 cents.
Firm Trades| The stocks in the junior market that traded and closed at the same price as the day before are Caribbean Cream with 113,700 units trading at 70 cents and Consolidated Bakeries with 11,861 shares, to close at 80 cents.
Declines| Junior market stocks declining at the end of trading are Caribbean Producers with 5,000 units changing hands and declined by 5 cents to close at $2.55, followed by Lasco Distributors with 156,500 shares as the price declined by 5 cents to close at $1.25 and Lasco Manufacturing with 85,126 shares the price fell 2 cents to close at $1.08.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 5 stocks with the bids higher than their last selling prices and 4 stocks with offers that were lower.
J$ gives up some ground on Wednesday
In Wednesday’s trading the Jamaican currency slipped against all three major currencies that Jamaica trades in. On Wednesday, dealers bought the equivalent of $29,964,712 versus US$29,935,750 on Tuesday and sold the equivalent of US$26,521,292 compared to US$29,376,851 sold on Tuesday.
In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$25,992,810 compared to US$26,382,733 on Tuesday as the buying rate for the US dollar, fell 13 cents to $112.03 and sold US$24,271,674 versus US$26,303,408 on Tuesday, with the rate rising 7 cents to $112.64. The Canadian dollar buying rate climbed $1.03, to $103.57 with dealers buying C$835,190 and selling C$673,642 as the rate rose 30 cents, to $105.14.
The Pound closed at $191.07, for the purchase of £1,827,067, the rate rose 59 cents, while £771,646 was sold, with the rate rising by 20 cents, to $193.04. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$83,624 while selling was the equivalent of US$298,430.
Highs & Lows| The highest rate for buying the US dollar was up 90 cents to $114, the lowest buying and the highest selling rates remained unchanged at $92.02 and $117.91 respectively, the lowest selling rate jumped $18.09 cents to $110.10. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar rose by $1, to $106 and the lowest buying rate was up 5 cents, to $83.42, the highest selling rate was unchanged at $107.48 and the lowest gained 5 cents to $100.50.
The highest buying rate for the British Pound, was slipped 60 cents to $193.60, while the lowest buying was unchanged at $154.38 and the highest selling rate declined by $2.09 to $196.93, the lowest selling rate was up by 50 cents at $186.50.
Knutsford & AMG Packaging – Buy Rated
The buy rated list now has Knutsford Express, and AMG Packaging is moved back into the list. One Caribbean Media is moved to the Watch List as its valuation moved up considerably from when we crowned it BUY RATED in 2013.
Knutsford Express is moved in based on good May quarter revenue and profit growth which augurs well for profit going forward and AMG Packaging continued growth in sales flowing from increased volumes and a near doubling in profit in the May quarter and partial recover in profit margins. Jamaica junior market listed Caribbean Cream, posted strong gains in profit for its first quarter to May, to reinforce the Buy Rating placed on them.
In Trinidad ScotiaBank was removed from the watch list, with much lower profits reported in their second quarter.
The Jamaican BUY rated stocks overall did not do well but signs are showing that the usual summer recover is at hand. In addition IC Insider gathers that a least one big investor is looking to buy stocks now. Coupled with that, the two companies mentioned above, show that profits may be on the improve for Jamaican companies, and with likely stability not far off for the Jamaican dollar, above average gains can only be made in stocks.
Knutsford enjoying the good times – now Buy Rated
A strong 88 percent jump in fourth quarter revenues, spawned 55 percent increase in pretax profit of $22.9 million, up from $14.8 million in 2013, at Knutsford Express.
For the 12 months to May, pretax profit climbed marginally to $56. Earnings per share which ended at 50 cents for the full year, is up to 23 cents for the last quarter. The latter is what investors would be really interested in, as it gives a good indication, of a rise in profit for the 2015 year.
Management in commenting on the data, indicated in their report accompanying the results, that ridership on the south coast of the island is growing and “signals readiness for enhancement to our schedules on this side of the island.”
Revenues for the quarter, climbed a strong 89 percent, to $96 million from $51 million in 2013, and from $203 million in 2013, to $323 million in 2014.
The result for 2014 is an improvement over the February 2014 quarter, when they reported $90.6 million in revenues and profit of $9.9 million before taxation and is a reflection of continuing growth in business. With the latest figures and signs of continued growth in revenues, earnings for the 2015 year should be around $1 per shares which would place the stock at an interesting valuation with some growth potential, in the stock price to somewhere in the $8-10 range over the next nine months or so compare to $5.16 it last traded. The stock is not in abundant supply and has only traded on a total of seven days, since listing in January this year.
The company’s finances are in a healthy state, with little debt, equity of $159 million and cash of $54 million.
AMG profit up 93% in Q3
Junior market listed company, AMG Packaging, enjoyed increased revenues and profits in the May quarter than they did in the same period, the previous year.
Revenues rose 36 percent in the quarter, to $151.6 million and 40 percent in the nine months to May, to reach $442.4 million, but profits were up by a very strong 93 percent in the quarter to $13.37 million from $6.9 million in 2013, and just moderately better in the year to date period, with $36.87 million versus $35.5 in 2013. Units sold increased by an impressive 23.4 percent, management sated in a release accompanying the results.
There is a noted build-up of inventory from $93 million to $174 million which would be a combination of rising import cost resulting from the devaluation of the local currency, as well as a hedge against continued devaluation and the need for more inventory to service increased demand for the company’s products.
While profit is up, an area of concern is the slippage in the gross profit margin, with the latest quarter, coming in at 25.95 percent, down from 31.19 percent in 2013, and for the nine months, it fell from 34.62 percent in 2013, to 24.20 percent in 2014.
For the three months, gross profit grew by 17.95 percent, much slower than the sales growth. For the nine months, the growth was a mere 6 percent. Fall in administrative cost from $13.38 million to $10.6 million in the May quarter and a decline in the nine months period, from $32.98 million down to $30 million, helped in boosting net profit. Other areas of cost savings, include finance by $4.4 million and depreciation $2.5 million, for the nine months.
Return on equity is around 18 percent, down from 20 percent in 2013 and could be accepted as being good, but there appear to be room for improvement. Receivables are up by $19.5 million over the company’s previous fiscal year ending of August, and so too is amounts in payables, climbing by $63 million, which seems to be helping to fund the inventory build while cash is down from $34 million to $8 million.
The continued increase in volume sales and cost containment augurs well for profit improvement going forward. With increased through put, unit cost of production will fall, allowing more growth in gross profit to flow into overall profits. AMG has to continue to grow its business by continued strong volume growth, to become a more cost competitive producer with lower unit cost.
IC Insider’s forecast for 2014 is 60 cents per share and $1.20 for 2015 on the assumption that volume sales continue close to current growth levels. The stock has been restored to the Buy Rated list, based on the forecast for 2014 and 2015.
Circuit Breaker rule could be changed soon
After years of clamouring for a change investors may see some modification of the existing circuit breaker rule that prevents the value of any one stock from changing more than 15 percent from the closing value of the previous day. The JSE management is proposing that the 15 percent limit be moved to 30 percent and that the freeze would be for an hour.According to our sources, the Exchange is proposing a move towards an intra-day setting of the circuit breaker which allows a ‘cooling off’ of the market in transactions of that particular stock, but does not prevent the stock from trading again within the day, at a prescribed level. This change should provide investors with a more liquid market and a by-product would, be increased level of transactions that would be of benefit for the entire industry.The stock exchange board has not yet signed off on the proposal which could undergo further modification if implemented.
Many investors have expressed dislike for the circuit breaker as they see it as impeding trading which it does. While the Jamaica Stock exchange has stuck to the current system, Barbados moved a few years ago to a more flexible one in which there is a break for a limited time so that brokers can make contact with their clients who may want to buy or sell as the case may be and trading in the stock resumes.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange introduced a circuit breaker rule in the 1990s sometime in an attempt to moderate price movements of a stock each trading day. While some persons will indicate that it is 15 percent above or below the closing price of a stock, in reality while that is the primary basis the rule allows for it to be the lower or higher of the bid or asking prices where these are higher of lower than the sale price. An illustration will help. If stock “A” sold at $10, but the offer was $10 or more and the bid is $10 or lower, then the maximum price movement permitted the next day would be 15 percent or $1.50. If however, the closing bid was $12 then the stock can trade the next day up to $13.80 or $1.80 or 15 percent above the bid or $3.80 which would be 38 percent above the last traded price. The reverse would be true, if the offer was lower than the last selling price of $10.
Advancing stocks out pace decliners on JSE 11 to 6
Market activity was very moderate in Tuesday’s trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, the prices of 11 stocks rose and 6 declined as 26 securities changed hands, resulting in 1,088,746 shares trading, valued at $15,721,500.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index gained 521.80 points, to close at 70,786.13 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index moved up 583.46 points, to close at 77,859.94.
Gains| Stocks recording gains at the end of trading in the main market, are Cable & Wireless with 30,000 shares, to close with a gain of a cent, at 30 cents, Caribbean Cement with 5,959 units changing hands and close with a 5 cents gain, at $2.25, Carreras with 78,543 shares, closed with a gain of 35 cents, at $35.10, Desnoes & Geddes traded 25,000 units and gained 30 cents, to close at $4.55, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 6,700 shares helped to add 10 cents on the price to end at $7, National Commercial Bank with 72,545 shares, closed with a $1 increase to $18.50, Sagicor Group exchanged 193,523 shares with the price rising 4 cents to $9.03, Sagicor Real Estate Fund 25,000 units while gaining 15 cents to close at $6.40, Salada Foods with 20,000 shares as it gained 10 cents to end at $7.90 and Scotia Group 326,180 shares helped to garner 10 cents to close at $18.50.
Firm| There were only 3 stocks in the main market to close without a change in price with Berger Paints trading 6,780 units at $1.60 followed by Gleaner with 3,400 shares to end at $1.11 and Jamaica Broilers with 12,000 units at $4.57.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 10,000 units to close at $3.03 and Jamaica Public Service 5% D preference share traded 3,000 units at 35 cents.
Declines| The stocks that declined in the main market are Kingston Wharves with 10,589 shares, as the p[rice declined by 75 cents to end at $5.25, Pan Jamaican Investment traded 57,174 units and closed with a loss of 49 cents at $48.01, Proven Investments ordinary shares traded 12,600 units to close with a loss of 0.0005 US cents and ended at 17.95 US cents, Seprod with 5,000 shares closed with a loss of 30 cents at $10.50 and Supreme Ventures with 2,000 shares changing hands closed with a decline of 2 cents at $1.95
Junior Market| The JSE Junior Market Index inched up by 0.26 points to close at 692.66 as only 6 stocks traded with 1 advancing and 1 declining.
Gains| The only stock recording gains at the end of trading in the junior market was Lasco Financial Services with 19,000 shares as the price gained 5 cents to close at $1.
Firm Trades| Junior market stocks that traded at the close at the same price as the previous trading day are Caribbean Cream in trading 38,300 units to close at 70 cents, Consolidated Bakeries with 41,047 shares to close at 80 cents, Lasco Distributors 4,740 units while closing at $1.30 and Lasco Manufacturing with 55,500 units, to close at $1.10.
Declines| The only junior market stocks declining at the end of trading was General Accident with 24,166 shares while losing 5 cents to end at $1.45.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 5 stocks with the bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 stocks with offers that were lower.
J$ gains on US$, others gain
In Tuesday’s trading the Jamaican currency saw a reduction in the selling rate for the United States currency but a fall in value against the Canadian Dollar and British Pound.
On, dealers bought the equivalent of $29,935,750 versus US$42,467,751 on Monday and sold the equivalent of US$29,376,851 compared to US$33,244,982 sold on Monday. In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$26,382,733 compared to US$37,691,477 on Monday as the buying rate for the US dollar, rose 13 cents to $112.16 and sold US$26,303,408 versus US$31,281,273 on Monday, with the rate falling 6 cents to $112.57.
The Canadian dollar buying rate climbed 30 cents, to $102.54 with dealers buying C$1,033,867 and selling just C$902,104 as the rate rose 2 cents, to $104.84.
The Pound closed at $190.48, for the purchase of £1,454,877, the rate rose 82 cents, while £966,414 was sold, with the rate rising by 70 cents, to $192.84. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$136,925 while selling was the equivalent of just US$577,731.
Highs & Lows| The highest rate for buying the US dollar and the lowest buying rate remained unchanged at $113.10 and $92.02 respectively, but the highest selling rate fell $4.09, to close at $117.91 and the lowest selling rate rose 16 cents to $92.01. The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar fell by 10 cents, to $105 and the lowest buying rate fell 25 cents, to $83.37, the highest selling rate fell by $1.13 to $107.48 and the lowest settled 30 cents lower at $100.45.
The highest buying rate for the British Pound, was up 45 cents to $194.20, while the lowest buying rate eased by 33 cents to $154.38 and the highest selling rate declined by 43 cents to $199.02, the lowest selling rate was down by 40 cents at $186.
