Blog Page — Page 1433

TTSE: First Citizens’ big market boost

September 19, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Thursday, 19th September 2013 | The Trinidad stock market got a big boost on Thursday as the newly listed First Citizens traded as high as $38.45 before retreating to close the day at a last traded price of $34.99 as 579,203 shares changed hands for a value of $21,772,102. At the current closing price, the PE is just over 23 times this year’s earnings, slightly above Scotia Bank’s valuation, suggesting that this level may result in some fluidity in the price. At the close, there are offers for just under 23,000 units at $34.99 and the bid, which was small, was at $34.

The market saw trading in 10 securities of which 5 advanced, 1 declined and 4 traded firm as trading activity accounted for 1,315,380 shares crossing the floor valued at $30,638,799.

Jamaica Money Market Brokers enjoyed another day of good volume with 526,150 shares valued at $263,075 as it closed firm at 50 cents. ANSA McAL contributed 103,242 shares with a value of $6,842,848 it closed firm at $66.28, while Guardian Holdings added 13,945 shares valued at $208,158 as the price moved up to $15 at the close up 58 cents. Trinidad Cement closed at $2.10 an increase of 8 cents as it traded 10,000 units, at the end of trading there was no stock on offer. National Enterprises traded at a new 52 weeks high of $16.06 for 2,000 units and the stock gained 5 cents.

Conversely, Clico Investment Fund traded 67,840 shares valued at $1,448,647 and declined by 20 cents to end the day at $21.35.

IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed that there were bids for 4 stocks being higher and 2 stocks with offers lower than their last selling price.

FX: Rates on the move

September 18, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Wednesday, 18th September 2013 | The buying of forex saw the amount sold to end users being just above the purchases by authorized dealers with US$27.66 bought and US$28.5 being sold.

USD Trades | It cost more for end users of the US dollar as the average selling rate increased by 8 cents to $102.645 as dealers sold US$25.28 million while they bought $23.97 million at 17 cents more than on Tuesday at $101.914. The US dollar traded as high as 40 cents more at the highest buying rate, which hit $103.50 and sold it as high as $108.07, the same rate as the day before but hiked the lowest selling rate by $15.66 to $100. The rate for buying at the low end remained unchanged at $84.34.

Canadian | The Canadian dollar was sold for just 2 cents more at $99.75 with C$422,718 being sold and C$885,668 purchased at an average rate of $97.874 which is 54 cents less than on Tuesday. Traders bought the currency as high as 15 cents more at $100.60 and as low as $80.22 or 4 cents less. On the sell side the highest rate declined 5 cents to $103.42 and the lowest rate moved up by 30 cents to $97.

British Pound | The Pound put on $1.23 to reach $162.27 as dealers bought £1,736,444 and sold £1,667,499 at $1.09 more at $164.65. The Pound was bought as high as $1.60 more at $165.60 and as low as $132.30 or 50 cents more and sold at the highest rate of $170.56, a 64 cents increase and the lowest rate moved down by 90 cents to $155.80.

Filed Under: FX Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Daily Trading, FX Market, Trading Activity

Jamaica Yellow Pages

September 18, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Jamaica Yellow Pages announced today its selection by Google to the Google AdWords™ Premier SMB Partner program. With this agreement in place, Jamaica Yellow Pages becomes the authorized reseller of the Google AdWords advertising program. This strategic alliance is a testament to the Jamaica Yellow Pages commitment to driving value to its advertisers through marketing programs such as Google AdWords.

As a Premier SMB Partner, Jamaica Yellow Pages now provides full-service AdWords account management on behalf of local businesses, from account setup and activation, to ongoing campaign management and optimization. This agreement will encourage small and medium sized businesses to use online advertising as a cost-effective way to find and target new customers as well as drive repeat customers.

“We are excited to launch the Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner program with hand-picked, highly qualified companies like Jamaica Yellow Pages”, said Rogelio Montekio, head of Google’s channel sales. Our Google Adwords was created to drive value to small and medium-sized businesses and maximize the performance of their campaigns”, added Mr. Montekio.

Partners in the Google AdWords™ Premier SMB Partner Programme must meet the highest standards of excellence for qualification, training and customer service. They must also bring to the table local search marketing knowledge and solid experience working with small and medium-sized businesses in the local market.

“As a business we are continuing to invest in the best resources to deliver the right partners to boost the visibility of our advertisers,” said Mark Macfee, Executive Vice President for Global Directories, publishers of the Jamaica Yellow Pages®. “We are very excited with our participation in this program which extends our range of innovative products and services and further demonstrates our commitment to providing the best solutions possible when it comes to digital marketing,” added Mr. Macfee.

For more on Jamaica Yellow Pages eMarketing for small and medium-sized businesses call 936-3940 or visit: Jamaicayp.com.

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: Google, Yellow Pages

JSE: Trading levels low again

September 18, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Add your HTML code here...

Wednesday, 18th September 2013 | The Jamaica Stock Market was easy on Wednesday as there were little change in the indices except the Junior market index was down 12.60 to 765.06. Advancing and declining stocks were almost even at 7 to 8 and 15 had no price change at the end of trading. Trading levels were once more low with 8.2 million units being exchanged for $27.6 million, with the preference shares accounting for $5.8 million of the amount traded.

Main Market | Carreras is trying to recover but supply is placing pressure on the stock but it traded 5,913 at $48 as it gained 40 cents at the close. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 622,917 units valued at $5,271,675 as the price closed at $8 after trading as high as $8.45 for most of the day; Mayberry Investments put in 55,000 units with the price closing holding firm at $2.65; National Commercial Bank chipped in with 55,677 units with the price closing firm at $18.65; Sagicor Investments 34,865 units closed at $16.55; Sagicor Life put in 201,800 to close at $8.50 down 50 cents after trading most of the day at $9; Scotia Group traded 23,699 units with the price closing at $21.27 down by 3 cents; Scotia Investments 10,550 units closed at $26.50 down 50 cents; Infrequently traded Seprod put in a volume of 3,00,227 units as the price closed at $14, an increase of $1.00; Supreme Ventures lost 15 cents at the close at $2.56 with 10,000 units changing hands; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% exchanged 1,383,131 units at $3 valued at $4,149,393 and Proven Investments 8% traded 330,939 at $5.09 valued at $1,684,480.

Junior market | AMG Packaging traded 37,428 units with the price closing firm at $4; Consolidated Bakeries contributed 110,445 units to the total traded with the price closing $1.22 down 12 cents; General Accident Insurance exchanged 133,881 $1.77, up 2 cents; Jamaican Teas traded 17,715 units with the price closing firm at $4; Lasco Distributors saw a large volume of 2,000,000 units trading with the price closing at $1.50 unchanged valued at $3,000,000 as just one trade took place; Lasco Financial Services accounted for 2,554,481 units with the price closing firm at $1.25 valued at $3,193,101 and Lasco Manufacturing saw 262,311 units trading with the price closing at $1.45 down 10 cents.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed that there were bids for 6 stocks being higher and 3 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Daily Trading, JSE Company, Trading Activity

August inflation increase moderate

September 18, 2013 by IC Insider.com

The inflation rate for August 2013 compared to July 2013 rose by 0.4 per cent as measured by the All Jamaica ‘All Divisions’ Consumer Price Index.

The index for the division ‘Transport’ recorded the highest movement of 0.9 per cent for the month, largely the result of a rise in the cost of airfares, motor vehicles and petrol and its related products. The most heavily weighted division ‘Foods & Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ recorded an upward movement of 0.2 per cent. In this division the highest movement of 2.0 per cent was recorded for the class” Fruit’. This movement was however moderated by the decline of 1.0 per cent for ‘Vegetables and Starchy Foods’. The index of 2.2 per cent in “Water Supply and Miscellaneous Services Related to the Dwelling” which was tempered by a decline of 0.3 per cent in “Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels” the report from Statistical Institute of Jamaica disclosed.

The year–to-date inflation was 4.8 per cent, 1.5 percentage point above the 3.3 per cent that was recorded for the similar period in 2012.The point-to-point movement was 9.5 per cent.

All other divisions that make up the All Jamaica index recorded increases below 1.0 per cent. ‘Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco’ rose by 0.4 per cent, ‘Clothing and Footwear,’ 0.4 per cent, ‘Furnishings Household Equipment’ and Routine Household Maintenance’, 0.2 per cent, ‘Health’, 0.3 per cent, ‘Recreation and Culture’, 0.7 per cent, ‘Restaurants and Accommodation Services’ 0.4 per cent, and ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ 0.8 per cent. There was no movement recorded for both ‘Communication’ and ‘Education.’

There were increases in all three regions: Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area, 0.4 per cent, Other Urban Centres, 0.6 per cent and Rural areas, 0.2 per cent.

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: Economy, GOJ

First Citizens off Buy Rated list

September 18, 2013 by IC Insider.com

First Citizens Bank is now off the Buy Rated list as the price has shot up to $33.45 in Wednesday’s trading. However, the stock remains on the Watch List as it is poised to go higher with good bids to buy 1.2 million shares and none on offer at the close.

From here on, the stock becomes one that is more for the long term gains as the PE ratio has risen to 22.3 times this year’s earnings, just a fraction below Scotiabank and well above Republic’s 15 times PE. The price of the stock would have to retreat quite a bit in valuation for it to get back into the Buy Rated list.

Not much has changed elsewhere in the market except that Trinidad Cement and Guardian Holdings seems to have bottomed and are slowly recovering.

Image courtesy of Jeroen Van Oostrom/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: First Citizens, PE Ratios, TTSE

TTSE: First Citizens up 52%

September 18, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Wednesday, 18th September 2013 | First Citizens Bank traded 23,952 units valued at $801,194 as the price hit another 15 percent maximum price movement, the third consecutive day the stock activated the circuit breaker.

Importantly there are 1,272,755 units to buy at the closing price of $33.45, which was up $4.36 for the day. Although the advance decline ratio was positive as 6 advanced and 2 declined, it was the movement of First Citizens stock that was behind the gain of the All Trinidad & Tobago index by 23.24 to 1,886.79.

Upward price momentum seems to be in favour of First Citizens as demand remains intact. However, First Citizens’ PE ratio at 22.3 times this year’s earning is now close to Scotiabank, while Republic Bank is way down at 15 times. Rational investors will take these factors into consideration when investing. The PE suggests that a short term top is not too far off. IC Insider had projected $35 but that seems a bit conservative based on what has happened to date and the lack of offers in the market so far. This is one worth watching.

Trading accounted for stocks of 11 companies changing hands as 616,236 units traded for a value of $2,479,793.

Jamaica Money Market Brokers continue to be in demand trading 514,481 shares for a value of $257,241; Jamaica’s Scotia Investments contributed 25,000 shares for $50,000 as the stock closed down 5 cents to close at $2. Sagicor Financial Corporation added 13,629 shares valued at $94,841. Scotia Bank gained 2 cents to $70.04 a new 52 weeks high as it traded 11,743 units; Guardian Holdings moved up 2 cents to $14.52 on 2,350 shares changing hands. Trinidad Cement inched up 2 cents to $2.02 but with just 4,000 units and Angostura Holdings traded at a new 52 weeks high of $10.01 but with just 500 units trading. Clico Investment Fund traded 18,375 shares valued at $396,063 as the price inched down a cent to end at $21.55.

Related post | First Citizens off Buy Rated list

Filed Under: Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: Daily Trading, Trading Activity, TTSE

Sagicor offers shares in Real Estate X Fund

September 18, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Sagicor Real Estate X Fund is offering shares in an initial public offering (IPO) which opens on September 24, 2013 and will close on October 18, 2013. The offer is subject to the right of the Company to close the Subscription List at any time without notice if subscriptions have been received for the full amount of the shares available for subscription and also subject to the right of the Company to extend the closing beyond that date. The shares are expected to be listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

A maximum 500,000,000 shares are available for subscription in this IPO with a minimum of 100 shares and in multiples of 100 shares. In the event that subscriptions or applications are received for more shares than the number of shares available for subscription and sale in this IPO, X FUND reserves the full, unqualified and absolute right to increase the number of shares in the IPO in order to satisfy all or part of the applications in excess of the 500,000,000 shares, which are comprised in the IPO but not exceeding a further 750,000,000 shares. Sagicor Jamaica and PIF have indicated that they jointly intend to exercise their options to buy shares at the IPO price with a view of holding up to 80% of the issued shares of X FUND.

The fund will invest in Sagicor real estate unit trust which holds the following properties in the fund: The R. Danny Williams Building (formerly Sagicor Centre in New Kingston), • 63-67 Knutsford Boulevard (New Kingston) • 78a Hagley Park Road (Kingston) • Sagicor Industrial Park (Marcus Garvey Drive Kingston), • Sagicor Industrial Park (Freeport, Montego Bay) • Sagicor Montego Bay Commercial Centre (Montego Bay) • Sagicor Industrial Park (Norman Road Kingston) • Spanish Town Shopping Centre (St Catherine) • 23-25 Seymour Avenue (Kingston) • Jewel Dunn’s River (St Ann) • Jewel Runaway Bay (St Ann) • Jewel Paradise Cove (St Ann).

The authorised capital of the Company is US$5,000,001,000. There is a Special Share which is held by Sagicor Jamaica, which the company sates is to ensure that the structure of the investment is not subverted by investors who may acquire substantial interest in the Company.

Sagicor Real Estate X Fund Limited (“X FUND”) is an International Business Company incorporated in Saint Lucia. Since its incorporation on May 31, 2011 it has not conducted any business on its own account other than to enter into certain agreements in anticipation of this IPO. The fund proposes to apply the proceeds of the IPO (“the IPO Proceeds”) to acquire other units in the Sigma Real Estate Portfolio. Pending investment of excess cash in units in the Sigma Real Estate Portfolio, the X FUND may invest in other assets including marketable securities. Thereafter the Company will carry on business as a passive investment holding company.

X Fund intends to distribute by way of dividends up to 85% of its annual net realised income.

The Articles of Incorporation of X FUND specifically authorises X FUND, from time to time, by a resolution of its directors, to issue additional shares in exchange for units in the Sigma Real Estate Portfolio. This will allow X FUND to purchase additional units from Sagicor Jamaica and/or PIF or direct from Sigma Real Estate Portfolio, without securing the approval of the shareholders in general meeting.

IC Insider call | Return on real estate in the form of income is low and growth in the value of the share price is unlikely to be rapid and may not show any growth in the short run. The fund provides a means of diversifying into the real estate market as well as in the tourism sector, but the latter can be great for a few years and not so great for some years.

This IPO is a real estate play that will not give investors the best return for their money. Investors will be buying shares at 100 percent book value with roughly a 4 percent yield in Year One. Meanwhile, the Pan Jamaican Investment Trust, which has real estate assets amounting to around 25 percent of total assets and generating a third of gross income from real estate, is selling at a huge discount to book value of $51 versus book of $78. Additionally, Pan Jamaican’s decision to invest in the new Marriott Kingston hotel, and no doubt with low interest rates, as well as other ventures into real estate developments, is likely to enhance the real estate portfolio over time. More importantly, the share price of Pan Jam stands a much greater chance of appreciation than a pure real estate fund.

The fact is that real estate does best when leveraged. Specifically, the Kingston Properties REIT is an excellent real estate play that could outperform the Sagicor Real Estate X Fund over time.

Filed Under: Company News, Initial Public Offers, Stock Market, TTSE Market Tagged With: JSE Company, KPREIT, Pan Jam, Sagicor

FX: Inflows decline

September 17, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Tuesday, 17th September 2013 | Inflows into the forex market declined sharply from Monday’s good flows to end up at US$22.9 million being bought by as authorised dealers and selling of US equivalent of US$26.5 million.

The buying price for the US dollar fell slightly by 9 cents as dealers bought US$20.25 million at $101.75 and sold US$$24.27 million at 3 cents more than on Monday at $102.57. The Canadian was bought for $98.42 an increase of 79 cent as C$864,656 was purchased but selling took place for 43 cents more than on Monday at $99.73 for CS$795,050. Purchasing of the Pound amounted to £1,060,506 at an average of $161.04, a 95 cents increase and selling amounted to £825,065 at $163.56 one cent down.

There was no change in the lowest buying rate and the highest selling rate for the United States dollar, which stands at $84.34 and $108.07 respectively but the highest buying rate moved down 40 cents, the same amount it increased by on Monday to $103.10 and the lowest selling rate was up 17 cents, nothing like the $15.63 drop on Monday as the rate closed at $84.34.

Changes in the Canadian currency saw an increase of 80 cents for the highest buying rate that ended at $100.45 and 21 cents gain for the lowest buying rate, which closed at $80.26. The highest selling rate moved up 11 cents to $103.47 and 35 cents was put on the lowest at $96.70.

The British Pound was bought for 50 cents more at the highest level of $164 and a 24 cents increase to the lowest buying rate that ended at $131.80. The highest selling rate jumped 79 cents to $169.92 and the lowest was dropped $1.30 to $156.70.

Filed Under: FX Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Daily Trading, FX Market, Trading Activity

JSE: Grace $3.23 drop pulls market down

September 17, 2013 by IC Insider.com

Tuesday, 17th September 2013 | In today’s trading, advancing stocks were overtaken by declining stocks 8 to 4 leading to a decline in all active indices. Trading levels were once more low with 6 million units being exchanged for $23 million. Preference shares accounted for $5.1 million of the amount traded. The all Jamaica index fell 297.39 to 84,897.19; the main market index was off 169.03 to close at 84,798.97 and the Junior market index was down 1.82 to 777.66.

Main Market | In trading Barita lost 23 cents to close at $2.27 with only 250 units; Cable & Wireless traded 394,815 at 17 cent down a cent; Carreras posted 7,082 shares to close at $47.60 down 5 cents; Caribbean Cement accounted for 65,799 units as it closed at $2.40 down 30 cents; Grace Kennedy put in 12,626 as the price dropped big time by $3.23 to close at $53.52; Jamaica Broilers Group saw 119,448 being exchanged at $5 at the close; Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 510,000 valued at $4 million as the price remained firm at $8; National Commercial Bank 41,659 units were exchanged firm at $18.65 at the close; Sagicor Life Jamaica 423,000 units crossed hands firm at $$9; Scotia Group 52,670 traded to close firm at $21.30; Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% traded 267,000 firm at $3 and Proven Investments 8% traded 840,000 firm at $5.09.

Junior Market | On a day of high volumes in the junior market, Access Financial Services put in a healthy volume on Tuesday of 206,353 units valued at $1.7 million as the price closed at $8.35 an increase of 7 cents; Caribbean Producers put in 232,300 units to close at $2.10 off by 5 cents; Consolidated Bakeries exchanged 56,829 units firm at $1.35; General Accident Insurance had 161,642 units changing hands at $1.75 down 2 cents at the close. Lasco Distributors traded 826,639 at $1.50 up 5 cents; Lasco Financial Services put in a good volume of 1,692,047 units valued at $2.1 million as it traded firm at $1.25 while Lasco Manufacturing 91,880 units traded up 5 cents to close at $1.55.

IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed that there were bids for 8 stocks being higher and 2 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price. This is the same level as on Monday and shows a bias to more price gains ahead.

Image courtesy of Photokanok/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Daily Trading, JSE Company, Trading Activity