Market activity on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange dropped sharply on Tuesday with just 141,873 units trading at a value of $1,306,192 compared to Monday’s 534,824 shares valued at $2,812,325.
At the close of the market only 10 securities were active compared to 12 on Monday as 5 stocks advanced, 3 declined and 2 held firm.
The Composite Index lost 0.19 points to 1,240.37, the All T&T Index rose 0.69 points to 1,822.42 and the Cross Listed Index lost 0.15 points to 88.28.
IC bid-offer Indicator|The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended with 10 stocks with bids higher than last selling prices and 6 with lower offers.
Gains| Grace Kennedy added 1 cent to close at $2.66 with 49,230 units changing hands, JMMB Group gained 2 cents, closing at $1.22 with trades of 30,903 shares, One Caribbean Media closed 40 cents higher to $16.40 with an exchange of only 45 shares. Scotiabank closed at $58.79, gaining 3 cents trading 935 units 
and Trinidad & Tobago NGL closed at $22.53, with gains of 2 cents while trading 2,462 units.
Losses| Clico Investments lost 2 cents to close at $22.50 trading 22,701 shares valued at $510,773, First Caribbean International Bank traded at $9, having lost 5 cents with 3,381 units trading and Guardian Holdings closed 39 cents lower to $15.11 with an exchange of 5,000 shares.
Firm Trades| Angostura Holdings remained unchanged at $15 with trades of 27,182 shares valued at $407,730 and Massy Holdings held firm at $53 trading 34 units.
Trading drops for Trinidad stocks
JSE stocks in partial recovery – Monday
Berger price closed at a 52 weeks’ high of $15.
Trading levels in main market ended at 2,432,176 units valued at $44,491,086 compared to 3,117,227 units valued at $95,348,879 at the close on Friday. Trading in the US dollar market accounted for 12,035 units valued at US$3,662 contributing to total trades between the two markets of $46,015,960.
The All Jamaica Composite Index advanced 2,331.84 points to close at 250,967.19 the JSE Market Index gained 2,085.08 points to finish at 228,783.81 and the JSE US dollar market index fell 6.38 points to close at 224.79.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and US dollar markets, the
Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 9 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 with lower offers.In market activity, Barita Investments closed at $7 with trades of 900 units, Berger Paints gained $1 to close at 52 weeks high of $15 with an exchange of 11,900 shares, Cable and Wireless traded 549,079 shares at $1.40, Caribbean Cement closed higher at $36.75, after gaining 75 cents in trading 4,580 shares. Carreras traded at $72, with 3,556 units changing hands, Grace Kennedy closed lower at $41, losing 67 cents with trades of 165,139 units, Jamaica Broilers gained $2.32 to close at $16.50 with 243,848 units changing hands, Jamaica Producers declined $1.15, closing at $15.85 while trading 52,904 shares, Jamaica Stock Exchange closed at $7.70, losing 10 cents with an exchange of 198,265. JMMB Group closed $1.95 lower at $18 with 66,844 units changing hands, Kingston Properties traded 45 cents higher, closing at a 52 weeks’ high of $16 with trades of 879 shares, Kingston Wharves advanced $2.50 to $32.50 trading 4,150 units, Pan Jamaican declined $3 to close at $34, after exchanging 45,867 shares, Portland JSX traded 116 shares at $10.99,
Pulse Investments closed at a 52 weeks’ high of $10, with gains of $1.45 and 5,000 units changing hands, Radio Jamaica closed at $1.80, with 290,709 units traded. Sagicor Group closed at $35, with an exchange of 629,820 shares, Sagicor Real Estate fund gained 50 cents to close at $11 trading 63,566 units, Scotia Group closed $1.45 lower at $38.55 with 6,811 shares changing hands, Seprod closed at $40, with an exchange of 42,193 shares. Sterling Investments traded 5,172 shares at $18.20, Supreme Ventures closed at a 52 weeks’ high of $6.18, gaining 10 cents in trading 39,778 shares, Proven Investments lost 1 US cent to close at 31 US cents with trades of 12,035 ordinary shares and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.5% preference share closed at $2.05 with 1,100 units changing hands.
Big fall for juniors on Monday
Blue Power dropped sharply in trading on Monday.
At the close 7 advanced and 12 declined, leading the market index being chopped by 91.60 points, to close at 3,004.13 as 696,611 units valued at $3,845,397 passed through the market, compared to 10,450,308 units valued at over $52,212,947 on Friday. Trading ended with 6 stocks had bids higher than their last sale prices and 4 ended with lower offers, than the last sale. In spite of the large index decline three stocks closed at new high at the end of trading.
The junior market ended trading with an average of 31,664 units for an average value of $174,791 traded, compared to 522,515 units for an average value of $2,610,647 on the previous trading day. The average volume and value for the month to date ended at 151,408 units and $906,810. On the immediate preceding trading day the average volume and value for the month to date, were 168,514 units with an average value of $1,011,384. The average volume and value for February, ended at 223,938 units and $1,379,459.At the close of the market on Monday, CAC 2000 closed with a gain of 45 cents at a 52 weeks’ closing high of $8 while 38,000 shares traded, Cargo Handlers lost $2 in trading 2,693 shares at $21.50, Caribbean Cream closed trading with 36,500 units and lost 9 cents to end at $8, Consolidated Bakeries ended trading with a gain of 45 cents with 145,100 shares changing hands, to close at $2.49. C2W Music had 4,958 units changing hands to close with a loss of 3 cents at 30 cents, Dolphin Cove rose $2 and closed trading with 17,351 shares, at $20, General Accident closed trading with 10,893 shares at $3.30, Honey Bun shed $2 with 22,500 shares changing hands to end at $5, ISP Finance had 5,358 units changing hands to close with a gain of 75 cents at a 52 weeks’ high of $11.75, Jamaican Teas rose 37 cents and ended trading 8,736 shares to close at $6.82. Jetcon Corporation closed trading with 3,839 shares being exchanged for loss of 3 cents to end at $11,
Knutsford Express traded 350 shares to close at a 52 weeks’ high of $40.50, Lasco Distributors ended with 22,580 units trading at $6.85 after adding 5 cents, Lasco Financial fell 7 cents with 131,090 shares changing hands, to end at $4. Lasco Manufacturing closed with loss of 50 cents as 59,106 units changed hands at $4.50, Main Event had 126,775 shares changing hands, to close with a fall of 50 cents at $4.50, Medical Disposables fell 37 cents to close at $6.18 with 10,000 shares changing hands. tTech ended with 44,782 units changing hands, the price fell $1.95 to end at $6.05 and Derrimon Trading preference share ended with 2,000 units changing hands at $2.10.
6 stocks rise & 2 fall – Monday
Over 48 m units of First Citizens went on sale by the T&T govt at $32 per share today.
Trading on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange on Monday saw 12 securities changing hands compared to 13 on Friday leading to moderate changes in the market indices.
The market closed with 6 stocks advancing, 2 declining and 4 unchanged resulting in 534,824 shares trading at a value of $2,812,325 compared to Friday’s 150,233 shares valued at $1,739,892.
The Composite Index slid 0.72 points to 1,240.56, the All T&T Index gained 0.77 points to 1,821.73 and the Cross Listed Index was down 0.30 points to 88.43.
IC bid-offer Indicator|The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended with 6 stocks with bids higher than last selling prices and 6 with lower offers.
Gains| Clico Investments exchanged 1,788 units at $22.52, having gained 1 cent, Guardian Holdings closed 50 cents higher to $15.50 trading 17,838 shares, and National Enterprises rose 3 cents to close at $10.85 with 4,735 units changing hands. Scotia Investments added 1 cent, closing at $2.20 with an exchange of 194,600 shares valued at $429,620, Trinidad & Tobago NGL closed at $22.51, with a 1 cent gain while 500 units traded and West Indian Tobacco closed 1 cent higher to $127 with trades of 128 shares.
Losses| JMMB Group lost 8 cents, closing at $1.20 with an exchange of 113,431 units and Trinidad 
Cement closed 3 cents lower to $4.17 with 25,113 shares changing owners.
Firm Trades| Angostura Holdings traded 10,000 units at $15, Massy Holdings closed at $53 with 1,721 units traded, Sagicor Financial held firm at $9 with an exchange of 164,450 shares valued at $1,480,050 and Scotiabank closed at $58.76 trading 520 shares.
First Citizens did not trade with the government putting 48 million shares on the market for sale at $32 each starting on Monday.
TT$1.5B for TT govt. from Citizens’ shares
First Citizens
In 2013, First Citizens launched an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 48 million shares that raised $1.1 billion at $22 per share. The issue was heavily oversubscribed with $3.3 billion chasing the shares offered. The stocks more than doubled sometime after being listed on Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange in that year.
As was the case with the 2013 IPO, the proceeds of the latest issue will go to the government of Trinidad and Tobago. The First Citizens Group is one of the leading financial services group in Trinidad and Tobago, offering a full range of retail, corporate and merchant banking services as well as asset management, trustee and brokerage services. The Group is headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago.
First Citizens reported profit after taxation of TT$185 million for the December 2016 quarter, compared to TT$180 million in 2015 and TT$637 million for fiscal 2016 with earnings per share of $2.52 for 2016. Profit for the December quarter before tax ended at $247.6 million, a growth 12.5 percent, compared to the corresponding period in 2015. The selling price comes out at 13 times earnings. The price is not as attractive as when it first went public with a PE 9 times earnings in 2013, worse earnings per share has not grown since then either. The stock last traded on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock exchange at $32 each on Friday.
World oil prices tumble
World oil prices tumbled to trade around three-month lows on Monday, as rising U.S. inventories and drilling activity overtakes investors previous bet that OPEC’s efforts to restrict crude output would keep prices high for a long period.
Brent crude fell to a session low of $50.85, its lowest level since November last year while US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) to $48.34 a barrel. Reuters News stated that the price has fallen by more than 8 percent since last Monday, its biggest week-on-week drop in four months.
If prices hold at these levels it would mean lower imports for the Caribbean region and lower inflation for most countries within the region that are highly dependent on the imports of oil.
Jamaican motorists should enjoy a slight ease with new taxes being added to petrol at the pumps. With prices softening, Jamaica edging strategy needs reviewing as the price target for it around $70 a barrel is not on the radar anytime soon, barring some unusual negative development.
Jamaica stock price confusion
There was confusion on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Friday with investors being left uncertain about the closing prices of some stocks. AMG Packaging should have been trading with the opening price at $4.87 with a maximum tradable price on that day of $6.33. The stock market traded platform showed that the stock traded at $11.03 and then at $18.03, with the latter being cancelled in the morning session only for it trade back at that level with the market closing, showing the price at $18.30, subsequently, all trades were cancelled. Jamaican Teas last traded at $6.45 cents but the JSE official price has the last trade at $5.60 while the trading platform showed Blue Power last trading at $26 but the official price was $43.70.
tTech, one of ICI Insider.com top selections for 2017.
Insider trade for tTech
Trading in stocks by persons closely connected with the management may be sending signal as to future prospects. Of course that is not always the case. tTech stock price enjoyed major gains of 164 percent, since listing last year January at an IPO price of $2.50. With such gains, when a director buys a reasonable volume around $6.60, the investing public may need to take keen note. Last week the company advised that a Director purchased 200,000 units of its shares on March 8, 2017.
3 all-time highs for IC TOP 10 stocks
Berger closed at a new all-time high on Friday
The prices of several stocks listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange underwent some sharp adjustments in the past week, and especially so on Friday, the day after government disclosed revenues measures for the 2018 fiscal year.
Nothing was disclosed to send negative signals to investors, apart from some slight increase in inflation to be caused by increased taxes on a number of items, which could be partially offset by the rise in the tax threshold for individual taxpayers. If any thing the budget sends a strong message that the next twelve months should be highly positive for investments in stocks and real estate with increased fiscal surplus that have to be generated to meet the 7 percent primary surplus, that will have some deflationary impact and lead to lower interest rates near term. While the tax on cigarettes may initially be considered negative for Carreras the increase will allow the company to garner increased revenues to cover the tax and help boost profits.
The TOP 10 junior and main market stocks saw only a few movements in and out during the past week. A number of the stocks in the list hit new highs during the week. The price of ISP Finance hit a new high of $11.50 as some supply came to the market. With limited supply and the potential for strong growth in profits the stock looks like a candidate for as split before too long. Berger Paints and Pulse Investments climbed sharply to new highs, with the former trading as high as $15 during the week but settled back at $14, up from $11.51 at the close of the previous week. Pulse Investments closed the week at $8.55 and could go higher based on the limited supply on offer at $10.
The markets continue to consolidate while awaiting early signals from 2017 first quarter results. With the TOP stocks valued well below the average of the markets’ PE ratio and at a large discount to the valuation based on 2016 earnings, around 20 times, the Top 10 stocks should continue to record gains once the bull market remains intact.
In the junior market, Dolphin Cove and Jetcon Corporation returns to the top list after exiting, at the close of the previous week and with the latter falling sharply in price to close at $11.03. The two replaced Lasco Manufacturing and AMG Packaging, two that entered in the past week. These stocks are still within striking distance for the top tier listing but market activity in the coming week could change all of that.
In the main market of the Jamaica Broilersreported strong gains in its third quarter profits and should encourage investors to bid the stock up, during the week and Berger Paints seems set to move out of the list by the close of the week and Caribbean Cream and Dolphin Cove could move out of the top list during the week.
Broiler’s Haitian profit jumps 161%
Jamaica Broilers
The growth helped profit in the Caribbean division to climb 161 percent from $115 million to $299 million. Net Profit from continuing operation climbed 25 percent to $721 million up from $579 million for the January quarter and rose by just 4 percent to $1.55 billion compared to $1.49 billion for the nine months to January. Earnings per share ended at 60 cents for the quarter and $1.29 for the nine months and should end up around $1.70 for the full year, from net profit of $2 billion with 2018 fiscal profit preliminarily forecasted by IC Insider to be $2.
Revenue for the group climbed 12 percent to $11.7 billion in the latest quarter from $9.9 billion and $32 billion compared to $28 billion for the nine months to January.
Blue chip stocks pull market down Friday
Scotia Investments suffered big drop on Friday.
The All Jamaica Composite Index plummeted 6,139.33 points to close at 248,635.35, the JSE Market Index dropped 5,489.64 points to finish at 226,698.73 while the JSE US dollar market index gained 3.00 points to close at 231.17.
At the close 18 securities changed hands with 1 trading in the US dollar. In the main market, 7 stocks advanced and 5 declined. The US dollar market recorded no price change.
Trading levels in main market ended at 3,117,227 units valued at $95,348,879 compared to 90,132,738 units valued at $1,840,545,568 at the close on Thursday. Trading in the US dollar market accounted for 85,600 units valued at US$26,904, bringing the total traded in both markets to $98,798,014.
The main market ended trading with an average of 173,179 units for an average value of $5,297,160 traded, compared to an average of 3,605,310 units for an average value of $73,621,823 on the previous trading day.
The average volume for the month to date ended at 1,103,492 units versus 2,033,805 units on the prior trading dayThe average volume and value for February, ended at 223,938 units and $1,379,459.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading in the main and US dollar markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 7 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
In market activity, Barita Investments closed at $7 trading 587 shares, Cable and Wireless lost 10 cents, closing at $1.40 with 204,500 shares traded, Caribbean Cement closed at $36, gaining 50 cents with an exchange of 6,335 shares. Carreras traded at $72, with 37,074 units changing hands, Grace Kennedy closed at $41.67 with trades of 326,371 units, Jamaica Broilers closed at $14.18, losing 82 cents with 10,000 units changing hands, before the company released third quarter results with strong gains in the latest quarter.
Jamaica Producers lost 10 cents to close at $17 trading 309,509 shares, Jamaica Stock Exchange traded 278,128 shares at $7.80, JMMB Group closed at $19.95, gaining 95 cents with 49,414 units exchanged after trading as low as $16.29 during the day, National Commercial Bank declined 70 cents to close at $62.30, after swapping 229,081 units, Pulse Investments gained $1.55 to close at a 52 weeks’ high of $8.55 with 5,000 units changing hands, Radio Jamaica closed at $1.80, with a 1 cent gain and 109,729 units traded. Sagicor Group closed at $35, with an exchange of 107,230 shares, Scotia Group gained $1, closing at $40 trading 1,323,228 shares, Scotia Investments closed at $34, losing $5 with trades of 23,555 shares, Seprod closed at $40, with an exchange of 580 shares, Sterling Investments gained 70 cents to close at a 52 weeks’ high of $18.20 with 1,000 units changing hands, Supreme Ventures closed at $6.08, gaining 8 cents trading 95,906 shares and Proven Investments added 2 US cents to close at 32 US cents with trades of 85,600 ordinary shares.
Juniors make modest gains on Friday
I$P hit a new high on Friday.
Trading ended with 10,450,308 units valued at $52,212,947 passing through the market, compared to 1,482,096 units valued at over $12,049,960 on Thursday. At the close 4 stocks had bids higher than their last sale prices and 4 ended with lower offers, than the last sale.
The junior market ended trading with an average of 522,515 units for an average value of $2,610,647 traded, compared to 74,105 units for an average value of $602,498 on the previous trading day. The average volume and value for the month to date ended at 168,514 units and $1,011,384. On the immediate preceding trading day the average volume and value for the month to date, were 109,514 units with an average value of $744,840. The average volume and value for February, ended at 223,938 units and $1,379,459.
At the close of the market on Friday, during the trading session investors attempted to trade AMG Packaging at $11.44 and $18.01 with the trading platform showing these trades which were cancelled at the end of the session as the stock could not trade above $6.33 for the day after the 5 for 1 stock split was effected at the start of trading. Blue Power traded 5,000 shares and gained $3.30 to close at $43.70, CAC 2000 closed trading with just 600 units and gained 5 cents to close at $7.55, Caribbean Producers fell 20 cents in trading 70,600 units $4.10, Cargo Handlers fell 50 cents to $23.50 with 357 units changing hands, Consolidated Bakeries ended trading with 4,065 shares changing hands, to close at $2.50. Derrimon Trading ended at a 52 weeks’ high of $8.05 with 10,000 shares changing hands, Dolphin Cove climbed $2 and closed trading with 44,883 shares, to end at $18. General Accident closed trading with 50,000 shares at $3.30, Honey Bun gained 50 cents with 5,622 shares changing hands to end at $7, ISP Finance had 15,000 units changing hands to close with a rise of 50 cents at a 52 weeks’ high of $11.50, Jamaican Teas shed 85 cents and ended trading 15,000 shares to close at $6.45.
Jetcon Corporation closed trading with 22,946 shares being exchanged for fall of $1.97 to end at $11.03, Knutsford Express ended trading 18,762 units, to close at $35.02, after it traded at an intraday high of $36.01. Lasco Distributors rose 10 cents and ended with 296,944 units trading at $6.80, Lasco Financial fell 43 cents with 325,000 shares changing hands, to end at $4.07. Lasco Manufacturing closed with rise of 37 cents as 9,530,825 units changed hands at $5.07, Main Event had 9,000 shares changing hands, to close with a fall of 10 cents at $5, Medical Disposables rose 5 cents to close at $6.55 with 9,884 shares changing hands. Sweet River ended with 300 shares changing hands at $3.50 and tTech ended with 15,500 units changing hands as the price rose $1 cents to end at $8.
