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  • Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Governor, Richard Byles, says the sale of US$140Mn to the foreign exchange market has served to satisfy extraordinary currency demand, which surfaced in recent weeks. 
  • The spike was related to the demand for portfolio transactions and seasonal restocking by retailers ahead of the Christmas period.
  • Speaking at the BOJ’s quarterly briefing last Thursday, Mr. Byles said this spurred a 5.2% (J$7.07) depreciation in the value of the dollar between October 1 and November 12, “despite normal daily inflows”.
  • Additionally, he said it reversed the 1.8% appreciation that occurred in September, “and erased the sense of normal two-way movement in the exchange rate that had been evident for an extended period prior to October 2019”.
  • However, Mr. Byles said consequent on the BOJ’s sale of the US$140 million, via five BOJ Foreign Exchange Intervention and Trading Tool (B-FXITT) flash sale operations to authorized dealers and cambios, “we have observed that the exchange rate has adopted an appreciating trend since November 13”.

(Source: JIS)

  • Dominican Republic’s consumer price index (CPI) registered a variation of 0.67% in October 2019 compared to September and the accumulated inflation in the January-October period stood at 3.06%.
  • With this result, year-on-year inflation, measured from October 2018 to October 2019, stood at 2.48%, staying below the lower limit of the target range of 4.0% ± 1.0% established in the Monetary Program, indicates the Central Bank (BCRD).
  • The group with the greatest contribution to the variation in the general CPI was Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, with an increase of 1.2%, accounting for approximately half of the month’s inflation. They are followed by Transportation, with an inflation of 0.8%, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (2.4%) and Housing (0.6%).

(Source: Dominican Today)

  • For the year ended September 2019, Eppley Caribbean Property Fund reported an unaudited net profit of BBD$4.05Mn (EPS: $0.06), a full recovery from the BBD$739.33K loss (EPS: $-0.01) reported one year prior.
  • The performance was attributable to total investment income which increased from BBD$612.54K in 2018 to BBD$7.16Mn in 2019. This was supported by a fair value gain of BBD$2.15Mn which is a reversal from the BBD$2.38Mn loss reported in the previous year. Furthermore, rental income increased 18.4% (or BBD$279.42Mn) to BBD$1.84Mn, year-on-year, while the share of profit from investments in joint ventures increased by 88.6% (or BBD$1.38Mn) to BBD$2.95Mn, year-on-year.
  • The stock has declined by 20.7% since listing on the JSE, closing yesterday’s trading session at $36.62 per share. At this price, the stock currently trades at a discount of 33% to its September 30, 2019 book value per share. 

 (Source: Eppley Financials)