Tuesday, 15th October 2013 | The Junior Market’s newly listed Caribbean Flavours & Fragrances, saw 1,158,788 units trading up to $2.88, an increase of 30 cents as Mayberry Investments, the broker for the initial public offering, crossing the vast majority of the shares to trade.

Trading resulted in 8,503,678 units changing hands valued at $42,733,465. There were 7 stocks advancing to 7 declining. The junior market index declined 7.05 to close at 747.32. Declines were moderate in the main market with the JSE main index going down 197.24 to 83,036.36 and the all Jamaica index falling by 347.04 to 81,795.87.

Main Market | Investors picked up 97,032 units of Carreras unchanged at $39, down $2 for the day, as it closed at a new 52 weeks low. Grace Kennedy traded only 1,400 units to close up 49 cents, at $57, still well off the price in Trinidad at the equivalent of $66.40. Mayberry Investments snapped up nearly 1.8 million units of the 1,947,082 Jamaica Broilers shares for their own account, as the stock closed at $4.55, up 5 cents at the end of trading, with NCB Capital Market selling all but 4,000 units on behalf of clients. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 200,000 shares to close up 10 cents at $8.10, well below the J$10 equivalent it is trading for in Trinidad today. National Commercial Bank dropped to $17.01 at the end of trading down by $1.49 on 545,939 shares, the largest portion, 499,741 units was a cross at $17.60 by  First Global Financial Services. Sagicor Life traded 143,150 units, closing at $8.94, up 43 cents while Scotia Group exchanged 29,725 units, down 5 cents at $20.30; Seprod traded 150,000 units firm at $13; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.5% preference shares traded 474,816 units firm at $2; the 8.75% preference shares traded 316,239 units firm at $3. Proven Investments Limited 8% preference share traded 200,000 units firm at $5.09.

Junior market | Elsewhere in the Junior market, companies seem to be marking time with small volumes, except for today’s trading in Caribbean Flavours stock. AMG Packaging traded 10,000 firm at $4; Caribbean Producers traded 2,707,019 firm at $2.08; Lasco Distributors saw 89,000 units trading firm at $1.45; Lasco Financial Services traded 17,564 units firm at $1.20 and Lasco Manufacturing traded 96,800 units and closed down 5 cents at $1.45.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed the market with fluidity in price movements either way, with bid for 7 stocks being higher and 6 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Company results | Paramount Trading disclosed increased profits for the 3 months to August amounting to $19 million before tax compared to $10.7 million in 2012, up 78 percent. In the previous year 2012, after tax amounted to $8 million, Sales climbed 11 percent from $152 million to $169 million in the quarter. Helping with the increased profit was an improvement in gross profit margin, which rose from 29.6 percent to 31.3 percent and the holding of administrative and other cost to only a 7 percent increase. See our post for more details!

Monday, 14th October 2013 | The first trading day of the week saw the minor stocks dominating the main market volume as Cable & Wireless with 1,484,204 at 17 cents, down a cent; Caribbean Cement with 3,314,249 closing at $2.20, up 20 cents and Radio Jamaica with 3,166,688 units, closing at $1.32 were the dominant trades.

Trading resulted in 11,011,030 units changing hands valued at $23,764,695. There were 11 stocks advancing to 5 declining but only the junior market index moved up 7.25 to close at 754.37. Declines were moderate in the main market with the JSE main index going down 94.68 to 83,233.60 and the all Jamaica index falling off by 166.60 to 82,142.91.

Carreras investors picked up 23,449 units unchanged at $41; First Caribbean International Bank traded 3,224 units to close firm at $100; Grace Kennedy traded 3,180 units to close up a cent, at $56.51 while it traded in Trinidad at the equivalent of $66.40. Investors snapped up 203,759 units of Hardware & Lumber at $4.50 up by 5 cents; Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 99,289 shares to close firm at $8.00, well below the J$9.60 equivalent it is trading for in Trinidad. Mayberry Investments saw 28,160 units changing hands, unchanged at $2.60; National Commercial Bank traded 65,465 shares to close up 25 cents at $18.50; Sagicor Life traded 18,668 units, closing at $8.51, down 9 cents while Scotia Investments exchanged 117,950 units firm at $26.50 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference shares traded 100,000 units firm at $3.

Junior market | The junior market welcomed its 19 listing as Caribbean Flavours & Fragrances, the newcomer saw 86,420 units trading up to $2.58, an increase of 33 cents on the IPO price of $2.25. Lasco Distributors 1,186,462 units traded firm at $1.45 at the end; Lasco Manufacturing traded 949,326 units and closed up 5 cents at $1.50; investors landed 29,624 Paramount Trading shares at $3.05, up 5 cents.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed the market with a slight negative bias with bid for 1 stock being higher and 5 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

Company results | Caribbean Cream disclosed increased profits for the six months to August amounting to $17.6 million before tax compared to $15.9 million in 2012 and after tax $14.6 million versus $9.4 million, as sales climbed from $307 million to $422 million. The problem is that the company’s earnings per share computation is now properly computed and the taxation included appear to be overstated. Administrative and other cost are up just over 50 percent to $71 million while profit margin declined as the company states that they absorbed cost increases resulting from the devaluation of the local currency.