JSE Main Market indices made gains on Monday on lower volumes and value compared to Friday but with stocks rising outnumbered by those falling.
At the close, JSE All Jamaican Composite Index climbed 3,136.96 points to close at 553,758.80, the JSE Market Index gained 2,789.32 points to 504161.80 and the JSE Financial Index added 0.94 points to close at 137.13.
The market closed with 38 securities changing hands in the main and US dollar markets with the prices of 12 gaining, 15 declining and 11 trading unchanged. Main market activity ended with 36 securities accounting for 13,987,345 units at $42,027,052, in contrast to 37,782,232 units valued at $133,425,390 on Friday from 40 securities.
Sagicor Select Funds dominated trading with 9.55 million shares for 68.5 percent of the day’s trade and Wigton Windfarm with 2.6 million shares and 19 percent of the overall volume and QWI Investments with 885,900 shares and 6 percent of the trades.
The market closed with an average of 388,537 units valued $1,167,418 for each security traded, in contrast to 944,556 units for an average of 3,335,635 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 388,537 units valued at $1,167,418 and previously, an average of 653,621 units valued at $8,699,916 for each security changing hands. The market closed out November with an average of 653,621 units valued at $8,699,916 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 19 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and 1 with lower offers. The PE ratio of the market ended at 18.7, with the Main Market ending at 18.9 times 2019 current year’s earnings.
In the premier market, Carreras gained 25 cents to close at $8.35 trading 10,816 stock units, Jamaica Broilers dropped $2 to end at $36, in swapping 3,050 shares, Jamaica Producers settled at $24.50, after losing $1 trading 11,419 shares, 
JMMB Group lost 60 cents to end at $46.30, with 177,321 shares changing hands. Kingston Wharves gained $1.72 to close at $60.50 in exchanging 14,053 units. NCB Financial Group dipped $3 to $205, with 16,016 units traded. Portland JSX fell 48 cents to end at $8.02, with 6,350 shares crossing the exchange, Sagicor Real Estate Fund lost 95 cents to close at $10.80, in transferring just 1,000 units, Scotia Group gained 98 cents to end at $54 while exchanging 51,012 shares. Seprod settled at $50.55, in losing 34 cents while trading 28,813 stock units, Stanley Motta lost $1 to close at $5.30, with 24,566 units changing hands, Supreme Ventures shed 99 cents to close at $25.01, in swapping 14,500 shares and Sygnus Credit Investments closed 64 cents lower at $23 in trading 3,135 units.
Trading in the US dollar market closed with 42,800 units valued at US$12,106, with the market index advancing 6.23 points to close at 213.44. Proven Investments closed at 32 US cents, after gaining 1.98 US cents trading 37,500 shares and Sterling Investments closed at 2 US cents with 3,500 units changing hands.
Archives for December 2019
Sharp rise in Junior Market index
Junior Market activities ended on Monday with 26 securities changing hands, from 29 on Friday, resulting in an exchange of 883,148 units valued at $4,794,911 compared to 2,703,365 units valued at $18,646,706 on Friday.
At the close, the market index gained 37.52 points to close at 3,411.59, resulting from gains in 9 securities and declines in 11 while the prices of 7 remained unchanged and moving the market’s average PE to 12.6.
Trading ended with an average of 33,967 units for an average of $184,420 in contrast to 93,219 units for an average of $642,990 on Friday. In contrast, November closed with an average of 120,579 shares at $506,880 for each security exchanged
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator with 2 stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial dropped $6.68 trading 10,522 units to finish at $30, Caribbean Flavours lost $2.26 to end at $15.64 with a mere 50 units crossing the market. Derrimon Trading gained just 3 cents to end at $2.62 with 149,264 stock units changing hands, Dolphin Cove closed with a rise of only 1 cent at $11.11, in swapping of 589 shares. Elite Diagnostic added 8 cents and exchanged 86,142 shares at $5.40, Express Catering dropped 38 cents after exchanging 43,365 shares at $6. Fontana closed trading of 16,028, units, but fell 30 cents to end at $7.50, GWest Corporation ended with 5,000 shares trading, after rising 6 cents to end at $1.06. Honey Bun closed 50 cents higher at $7.50, with 63,788 stock units crossing the exchange, Indies Pharma traded 5,536 shares and rose 25 cents and close at $3.35. ISP Finance traded 302 shares after falling 31 cents to end at $31.99, KLE Group gained 13 cents in trading of 200 units at $1.53, 
Lasco Distributors closed trading of 9,000 units and gained 40 cents to end at $3.90. Lasco Financial closed trading of 17,100 units and shed 9 cents to end at $4.41, Lasco Manufacturing exchanged 171,733 shares, after rising 17 cents to end at $5.22, Limners and Bards lost 5 cents and traded 7,500 shares at $2.95. Paramount Trading rose 2 cents in transferring 38,656 stock units at $1.98, Stationery and Office Supplies fell 5 cents in trading of 16,904 units at $11 and tTech exchanged 8,000 shares at $6 with the fall of 1 cent.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.
Witco setting for a price explosion
Demand for West Indian Tobacco shares continues to build since the price adjusted for the three for one split last week. Bids to buy the stock have been rising and are now at 20,465 units at $40, above the adjusted last sale price of $34.98 but there are no stocks offered for sale.
In the overall market on Monday, investors traded 65,975 shares amounting to $950,201 from an exchange of 12 securities, against 15 on Friday, when 395,492 shares at $3,053,292.
At the close of the market, the prices of 2 stocks rose, 1 declined while 9 remained unchanged, leading the Composite Index to inch 0.12 points higher to 1,426.58. The All T&T Index rose 1.82 points to 1,783.68, while the Cross Listed Index lost 0.22 points to close at 144.94.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended at 7 stocks with bids lower than their last selling prices and none with a lower offer.
Gains| First Citizens Bank gained 10 cents and settled at $42.20, with 2,293 units crossing the exchange and Trinidad & Tobago NGL rose 20 cents and ended trading of 3,225 shares at $21.25.
Losses| Clico Investment Fund closed with a loss of 1 cent at $24.35, with investors exchanging 13,400 shares.
Firm Trades| Grace Kennedy ended at $3.44, trading 18,689 units, JMMB Group ended at $2.40, with 10,200 units crossing the exchange, LJ Williams closed at $1.20, after exchanging 120 shares, National Flour completed trading 10,000 units at $1.36. NCB Financial traded of 1,000 shares at $11.00, One Caribbean Media ended at $9.75, with 2,400 units crossing the exchange. Republic Financial exchanged 1,402 stock units at $130, Scotiabank settled at $59.75, with 1,718 crossing the exchange and Unilever Caribbean settled at $23.50, with 1,528 stock units changing hands.
Prices of securities trading are those at which the last trade took place.
Big jump in Honey Bun profit
Another major milestone in Honey Bun’s brief history of listing on the JSE Junior Market was reached at the end of the 2019 fiscal year, ending in September, with record revenues and profit.
The full-year results show pretax profit rising 73 percent to $183 million versus $106 million in 2018 and profit after tax rising 67 percent to hit $157 million from a 17 percent rise in revenues to $1.54 billion. Revenues grew even faster in the final quarter by 20.4 percent improvement over the 18.9 that revenues grew in the third quarter over 2018.
The results benefited from improved efficiency with cost sales rising well below the growth in revenues, with input cost increasing 12 percent for the year, driving gross profit margin to 48 percent, an improvement from the 46 percent in 2018. Selling and Distribution expenses rose 16 percent to $250 million from $214, Administrative Cost excluding depreciation rose 18 percent $284 million from $249 million.
Earnings per share rose to 33 cents in the just concluded year from just 18 cents in 2018. Importantly, the company is on the way to earn 70 cents per share for 2020 for a profit of $335 million and should go on to earn $1 per share or $490 million in 2021 and $1.30 or $600 million in the following year when the tax concession for half the regular rate ends.
One Honey Bun’s Products.
The company is benefitting from a capital expenditure of $330 million spent over the last two years to expand the factory and bring manufacturing under one location as well as an expansion of product range. The operations generated gross cash flow of $230 million up from $145 million in 2018.
Shareholders’ equity climbed to $741 million from $618 million. Current assets increased from $209 million to $353 million with net current assets ending at $185 million from $89 million in 2018. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $193 million, up from $100 million, but the company has Investments of $92 million comprising quoted shares and money market instruments treated as non-current assets.
The company manufacture and distributes baked products for the local and export markets.
The stock receives the IC BUY RATED seal of approval. The stock traded at $7 on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Junior Market for a PE of 10.
Continued stability for IC TOP 10
With the closing of the two initial public offers of MailPac Group and Lumber Depot last week, things started to return to more normally in the market this past week with the two main markets recording net gains for the week.
At the close of a week when the JSE Main Market put on125 points and the Junior Market rose 46 points there was minimal change to the IC TOP 10 list this week with just one change as Fontana returns to the top flight after a brief absence, replacing Caribbean Flavours with the price jumping to $17.90 on Friday. One important development at the end of the week was the release of full-year results, for Honey Bun, with profit rising 67 percent to hit $157 million from a 17 percent rise in revenues to $1.54 billion.
Importantly, the company is on the way to earn 70 cents per share for 2020.
The average gains for the IC TOP 10 stocks are 136 percent for Junior Market stocks and 96 percent for JSE Main market Top 10 stocks.
The top three Junior Market stocks, is now led by Main Event with projected gains of 183 percent, followed by MailPac Group with 180 percent and Medical Disposables with potential gains of 167 percent.
Radio Jamaica remains the lead stock with projected gains of 186 percent, followed by Pulse Investments in the number two spot with projected growth of 138 and Berger Paints with likely gains of 120 percent and percent is next.
The JSE Main Market closed the week with the overall PE of 19 up from 18.8 and the Junior Market at 14.2, an improvement over the previous week’s 13.8, based on current year’s earnings. The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks averages 18.7 from 7.8 last week with the Main Market PE at 10.6 up from 10.4.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at a discount of 39 percent to the average for Junior Market stocks and main market stocks trade at a discount of 44 percent to the overall market.
IC TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns to March next year. 
Projected earnings, along with the PE ratio for each company’s current fiscal year, are used in determining potential gains with the likely gains ranked in descending order with highest-ranked being the most attractive. 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 as new information is received that can result in changes in and out of the list.
This report is compiled by persons who may have an interest in the securities commented on.
