October 2018 — Page 12

All Jamaica just 535 points from 400,000

The Jamaica Stock Exchange, started the final quarter of the year in record territory and is within just 535 points of the critical 400,000 points milestone at 9.35 am.
The market indices surged sharply with the All Jamaica Composite Index jumping 6,187.64 points to a record 399,464.93 and the JSE Index jumped 5,637.64 points to a record 363,957.75. The Junior Market had slipped just 1.38 points at the opening but rose 23.03 to 3,418.05 at 18 minutes after opening.
In the main market NCB Financial traded at $127.98 but with only 130 shares trading and Jamaica Producers traded up to $27.80.

JMMB & Honey Bun now in IC TOP 10

Honey Bun and Medical Disposables are in this week’s Top 10 Junior Market stocks replacing Main Event and CAC2000. In the main market, Sygnus Credit and JMMB Group are back in the top tier stocks and out goes Stanley Motta and Sterling Investments.
Sterling Investments, a very long time TOP 10 listing hit a record $22.50 this past week, as investors continued to applaud the recently announced 3 for 1 stock split. In the Junior Market, CAC2000 closed at $15 and ended trading with no stock on offer. The stock seems poised for stock split, to create more liquidity and is set to trade higher this week with buying orders in for 139,000 shares at $15. The price of Stanley Motta climbed to $5.27 during the week from $4.81 in the previous week and exited the main market list.
Barita Investments and Berger Paints, long time TOP 10 listees, moved up in price during the week but still remain in the listing at position 7 and 9 respectively and could be out by the end of this week, if current demand continues.
Gains in the two markets are driving the PE ratio of the market higher with the overall PE for the Junior Market rising to 15 and the main market to 15.3 as the valuation multiple grows with historically low interest rates and high liquidity abounding in the financial market.
The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks, average 9.3, similar to last week’s level, as the market continues to revalue the multiple higher, the main market PE is now 9.5, up from 9.1 last week, for the top stocks.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at an average discount of 38 percent to the average for the Junior Market Top stocks but it’s a third of what the average PE for the year is likely to be, at 20 times earnings. The main market stocks trade at a discount of 38 percent to the overall market.
TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns within a 12 months period. Stocks are selected based on projected earnings for each company’s current fiscal year. Based on an assumed PE for each, the likely gains are determined and then ranked, with the stocks with the highest potential gains ranked first followed by the rest, in descending order. Potential values will change as stock prices fluctuate and will result in movements of the selection in and out of the lists for most weeks. Earnings per share are revised on an ongoing basis based on new information received that can result in changes in and out of the list as well.