Prices pulled back in trading on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Monday, following trading in 43 securities compared with 42 on Friday and ended with prices of just seven rising, 31 declining and five closing unchanged with the volume of stocks traded declining 41 percent and the value 55 percent lower than Friday.
Investors traded 15,354,831 shares at $30,576,301 versus 25,966,253 units at $67,322,180 on Friday.
Trading averaged 357,089 shares at $711,077 compared with 618,244 stocks at $1,602,909 on Friday, over September with an average of 220,239 units at $459,425.
One Great Studio led trading with 3.51 million shares for 22.9 percent of total volume followed by Mailpac Group with 3.51 million units for 22.8 percent of the day’s trade, Spur Tree Spices ended with 2.50 million units for 16.3 percent share of the market and ONE on ONE Educational with 1.03 million units for 6.7 percent of the total volume.
At the close, the Market Index dropped 51.88 points to settle at 3,907.46.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average PE Ratio of 10.7, based on last traded prices in conjunction with earnings projected by ICInsider.com for the financial years ending between November 2023 and August 2024.
Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows one stock ended with a bid higher than the last selling price and four with lower offers.
At the close, Access Financial shed $2.41 and ended at $23.09 as investors exchanged 605 shares, Caribbean Assurance Brokers dipped 18 cents to $3.20 with stakeholders exchanging 125,354 stock units, Derrimon Trading dropped 19 cents to close at $2.01 with traders dealing in 3,216 units. Dolla Financial skidded 12 cents in closing at $2.16 with 915,105 stocks changing hands, Dolphin Cove lost 34 cents to end at $16 with investors transferring 49,710 stock units, Fosrich declined 44 cents in closing at $2.46 after an exchange of 31,971 shares. Future Energy fell 50 cents to close at $3.50 after a transfer of 974,341 stocks, Image Plus dropped 10 cents and ended at $2.07 as 85,359 units passed through the market, 
Indies Pharma declined 15 cents to end at $3 after an exchange of 11,493 units. JFP Ltd fell 10 cents to $1.50 in trading 319,270 stocks, Knutsford Express dipped 8 cents and ended at $12.50 with investors dealing in 8,814 stock units, Lumber Depot lost 24 cents to end at $2.30 in an exchange of 21,555 shares. Main Event shed 67 cents to close at $13.50 while exchanging 5,000 stock units, ONE on ONE Educational skidded 14 cents in closing at $1.01 after the swapping of 1,028,049 units, Regency Petroleum fell 37 cents to $2.10 with a transfer of 319,239 shares. Spur Tree Spices dipped 10 cents in closing at $2.15, with 2,500,252 stocks crossing the market, 
Tropical Battery dropped 13 cents to end at $1.85 with shareholders swapping 74,586 stock units and tTech shed 27 cents to $2.21 after an exchange of 200 shares.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.
Archives for October 2023
JSE shares tumble to open October
The Markets gave back quite a lot of Friday’s headed gains as trading commenced for October with the Junior Market to the JSE Main Market indices declining sharply but the JSE USD Market Index rose.
At close, the JSE Combined Market Index shed 3,243.01 points to close trading at 338,145.95, the All Jamaican Composite Index dropped 3,568.87 points to finish at 352,223.23, the JSE Main Index fell 2,970.48 points to settle at 324,071.95, the Junior Market Index dived 51.88 points to end trading at 3,907.46 after Fosrich and Fesco dropped back from the late close surge in price on Friday and the JSE USD Market Index shed 2.50 points to settle at 256.33.
At the close, investors traded 25,939,993 shares in all three markets, down sharply from 50,931,729 stock units on Friday. The value of stocks traded on the Junior and Main markets amounted to $118.24 million, down from $256.86 million on Friday. Trading on the JSE USD market ended with investors exchanging 266,503 shares for US$6,378compared with 2,780,944 units at US$60,312 on Friday.
In the preference segment, Productive Business Solutions 10.5% preference share advanced $1 to end at $1,215.
The market’s PE ratio, the most popular measure used to determine the value of stocks ended at 21 on 2022-23 earnings and 11.1 times those for 2023-24 at the close of trading. ICInsider.com PE ratio chart and the more detailed daily report charts provide investors with regularly updated information to help decision-making.
The PE ratio chart covers all ordinary shares on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, grouped by industry, allowing for easy comparisons between the same sector companies and the overall market. The EPS & PE ratios are based on 2023 and 2024 actual or projected earnings, excluding major one off items.
Investors need pertinent information to successfully navigate numerous investment options in the local stock market. The ICInsider.com PE ratio chart and the more detailed daily report charts provide investors with regularly updated information to help decision-making.
Investors should use the chart to help make rational decisions when investing in stocks close to the average for the sector and not going too far from it unless there are compelling reasons to do so. This approach helps to remove emotions from investment decisions and place them on fundamentals while at the same time not being too far from the majority of investors. Investors who buy when the price of a stock is close to the average will find that they are not inclined to overpay for a stock.
The net asset value of each company is reported as a guide to assess the value of stocks based on this measure quickly. The chart also shows daily changes in stock prices and the percentage year to date price movement based on the last traded prices.
Dividends paid or payable and yields for each company are shown in the Main and Junior Markets’ daily report charts along with the closing volume pertaining to the highest bid and the lowest offer for each company.
Trading surges on Trinidad Exchange to start October
October commenced with a surge in trading on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange on Monday, with the volume of stocks traded rising 671 percent and the value 131 percent more than on Friday resulting from trading in 15 securities compared with 20 on Friday, with prices of three stocks rising, five declining and seven remaining unchanged.
Investors traded 1,133,869 shares for $5,285,656 up from 147,149 stock units at $2,288,627 on Friday.
An average of 75,591 shares were traded at $352,377 compared to 7,357 units at $114,431 on Friday, compared to September with an average of 21,948 shares at $198,506.
The Composite Index dipped 1.92 points to 1,207.71, the All T&T Index shed 2.92 points to finish at 1,850.68, the SME Index remained at 70.47 and the Cross-Listed Index slipped 0.12 points to finish at 72.75.
Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows three stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and four with lower offers.
At the close, Agostini’s gained 50 cents in closing at $68.50, with 4,600 shares crossing the exchange, Ansa McAl ended at $57.90 with a transfer of 3,500 stocks, Calypso Macro Investment Fund popped $1 to $23.50 in an exchange of 250 units. First Citizens Group dipped 10 cents to close at $49 with investors trading 470 stocks, FirstCaribbean International Bank remained at $7 in an exchange of 90 stocks, GraceKennedy ended at $3.30 with investors exchanging 499,100 stock units. JMMB Group fell 3 cents to end at $1.42 as investors traded 4,801 units, Massy Holdings skidded 5 cents to close at $4.85 with investors dealing in 24,342 shares, National Enterprises remained at $3.55 in switching ownership of 548,992 stock units. 
One Caribbean Media ended at $3.70 with investors swapping 3,000 stocks, Republic Financial dropped $1.09 to $120 after a transfer of 3,673 shares, Scotiabank shed 24 cents and ended at $72.51, with 680 units clearing the market. Trinidad & Tobago NGL advanced 1 cent in closing at $12.90 after an exchange of 38,362 stock units, Unilever Caribbean remained at $11.79 with 83 shares changing hands and West Indian Tobacco ended at $10.20 after 1,926 stocks were traded.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.
4 changes to ICTOP10 stocks
In a week with four changes to the ICTOP10 stock listings, the select list of stocks racked up some impressive gains to close out the past week and the ninth month of the year, following solid gains during the week for the Jamaica Stock Exchange Junior and the Main Market. Junior Market rose more than 150 points and rose above the August close, while the Main Market index jumped 14,765 points for the week and the All Jamaica Index is up 12,156 points with both up modestly over the August close.
Top performing stock in the past week.
Coming into the Junior Market TOP10 are Lasco Financial, Dolphin Cove and Lasco Distributors, as Everything Fresh, General Accident and iCreate dropped out. General Accident replaced Caribbean Cement that fell out of the Main Market TOP10.
The Main Market closed the week with Caribbean Cement jumping 16 percent to close at $56.80, Guardian Holdings ran up 14 percent to close the week at $506.60, followed by a 10 percent increase in Jamaica Broilers to $34 and a 6 percent rise in JMMB Group to $29, all other price changes were 4 percent or less.
The Junior Market saw Everything Fresh jumping 28 percent to $1.75, followed by Caribbean Assurance Brokers leaping 20 percent to $3.38 as supply of the stock below this price has dried up and One-On-One Educational Services and General Accident are up a notable 15 percent to $1.15 and $6 respectively and finally, Image Plus rose 7 percent to $2.17.
Caribbean Producers reported full year earnings to June of J$0.90 per share, excluding one off item. ICInsider.com projects earnings of $1.70 for the current year, pushing the stock jumps to 6th position in the top 10 to number 7 on the list.
At the end of the week, the average PE for the JSE Main Market TOP 10 is 4.9, well below the market average of 12.4. The Main Market TOP10 is projected to gain an average of 330 percent, by May 2024, based on 2023 forecasted earnings.
A total of 15 of the most highly valued stocks representing 23 percent of the Main Market are priced with a PE of 15 to 109, with an average of 29 and 19 excluding the highest PE ratios, with a PE of 23 for the top half and 16 excluding the stocks with the over weighted valuations.
The PE of the Junior Market Top 10 sits at 5.7 just half of the market at 11.2. There are 13 stocks or 27 percent of the market, with PEs from 15 to 28, averaging 19 that are well above the market’s average. The top half of the market has an average PE of 15, possibly the lowest fair value for Junior Market stocks currently and is projected to rise by 255 percent down from 288 percent last week by May 2024.
The divergence between the average PE of the Main and Junior Markets and the overall market valuation are important indicators of the level of likely gains for ICTOP10 stocks.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners, accordingly, the list includes some of the best companies in the market but not always. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings, allowing investors to focus on the most undervalued stocks and helping to remove emotions in selecting stocks for investments that often result in costly mistakes.
IC TOP10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns up to the end of May 2024 and are ranked in order of potential gains, computed using projected earnings for the current fiscal year. Expected values will change as stock prices fluctuate and result in weekly movements in and out of the lists. Revisions to earnings are ongoing, based on receipt of new information.
Persons who compiled this report may have an interest in securities commented on in this report.
Profit climbs 16% at Jamaica Broilers
Profit rose a cool 16 percent at Jamaica Broilers Group for the quarter to July 2023, to $1.2 billion over the $1.1 billion in the July 2022 quarter from a mere two percent increase in revenues to $23.4 billion from $23 billion in 2022.
Jamaica Broilers
Gross profit grew faster than revenues, with an increase of 8 percent to $5.7 billion from $5.3 billion in the prior year. The Jamaica Operations had segment results of $1.75 billion, down 7 percent below last year’s result of $1.88 billion. “The reduction was mainly driven by increased pressure from high levels of imports, affecting baby chick sales to our small farmers,” Robert Levy, Chairman and Christopher Levy, Group President & CEO advised investors in their comments on the quarter’s performance.
“The Jamaica Operations showed an increase of 5 percent over the corresponding quarter, which was mainly driven by poultry sales. Our US Operations reported a b segment result of $1.2 billion for the first quarter, 44 percent above last year’s results,” the directors went on to state. The group earned $815 million in segment results in 2022 from segment revenues of $9.2 billion which slipped to $9.1 billion in 2023 from external business in the US Operations.
“We did have a 3 percent decline in total revenue due primarily to falling prices in most of our product lines. However, a 56 percent year over year increase in poultry volumes assisted in offsetting the negative market pressures. Our South Carolina plant which produces the Best Dressed Chicken line of products has gained impressive market acceptance in the United States,” the directors reported.
The Caribbean operations segment that had positive results of $106 million in 2022 recorded a loss of $480 million in 2023.
Administrative costs declined marginally from $2.98 billion to $2.92 billion in the current period, distribution costs rose four percent from $690 million to $720 million, finance costs almost doubled, moving from $320 million to $633 million, taxation moved up from $332 million to $393 million during the 2023 quarter.
Total comprehensive income ended the quarter at $1.45 billion up from $920 million in 2022.
The group reported earnings per share of $1.24 versus $1.07 in 2022. ICInsider.com projects earnings of $7 for the current fiscal year and $9 for the following one. The stock last traded at $32.50, with a price earnings ratio of just under 5, compared to the average of the market of 12.4 based on current year’s earnings.
The group continues to fund expansion with $952 million invested in fixed assets during the quarter, down from $1.2 billion in the similar quarter in 2022, with net fixed assets climbing almost $7 billion from $15.4 billion to $22.2 billion at the end of the quarter. Funds were borrowed to finance the investment in fixed assets, with new loan funding of $2.44 billion during the quarter compared to $3.7 billion in the previous year. Loans repaid amounted to just $664 million versus $1.6 Billion in the previous year. The increased borrowing is the major factor in the climb in interest costs during the quarter, in addition to movement in interest rates internationally.
Cash inflows before working capital requirements for $3.4 billion and is up from $2.6 billion in the previous year after working capital funding rose, the group ended up with a negative cash flow of $2 billion that is up from $1 billion in the previous year.
After the investment in fixed assets, loan payments and receipts, the group was left with negative cash flows for the quarter of $1.9 billion which reduced cash from $4.6 billion at the beginning of the year to $2.8 billion.
The statement of financial position shows a healthy financial status with equity capital of $34 billion net current assets of $17 billion, total current assets amounting to $51 billion and total current liabilities of $34 billion which includes short term borrowings of $21 billion.
