Image courtesy of suphakit73/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The two main markets of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, pulled back this past week as the volatility in the price of some stocks resulted in shifts in the position of some stocks in the TOP 10. Movements were not enough to change the Junior Market list, even as Caribbean Producers saw a 25 percent fall during the week with heavy volume, the stock enjoyed partial recovery by weekend.
This week’s pull back, seems to support the comment last week, “that both markets are trading close to recent resistance levels which could act as a short term restraint on upward movement.”
In the main market, decline in the prices of Seprod down to $30 and Sterling Investments to $15.50 moved them into the top list and replaced Berger Paints and Scotia Group that maintained their prices and are now some distance from the top list.
The average PE ratio for the Junior Market Top stocks is 7.5 and 6.8 in the main market, these compare favourably with 13.7 for the main market and 13.4 for Juniors, based on 2017 estimated earnings. With several stocks trading below the average, the potential for more gains for the rest of 2017 seems positive, barring any major negative developments.
Recent TOP 10 listings remain just below the top spots with Access Financial, Jetcon Corporation, AMG Packaging, Dolphin Cove, Caribbean Cream and Blue Power sitting just below, with potential gains of more than 100 percent and in the main market, Grace Kennedy and Sagicor Group are just below the Top spots with good potential gains ahead.
The history of the Top stock performance indicates that, it takes a few months for most of the stocks to reach potential targeted prices as they tend not to be the stocks favoured by a large segment of investors, in the short term.
At the close of the week, IC Insider.com’s TOP 10 Junior Market stocks now trade at an average discount of 44 percent to the Junior Market average, while those in the main market are trading at a 49 percent discount, to the average of the market, leaving several stocks with room for growth in the months ahead.
At the close of the week, bid volumes for junior market stocks remained relatively low ranging from a high of 66,436 units at $5.15 for Lasco Manufacturing with an offer of 16,685 units at $5.20, Access with a bid of 35,425 at $42.50, Caribbean Producers with 34,300 units on the bid at $3.50, with 100,000 shares on offer at $3.80. Key Insurance closed with 15,213 units on the bid at $2.90 and 51,361 offered at $3.80 and Lasco Financial ended the week with a bid of $4.05 to buy 24,000 units with 47,888 units being offered for sale at $4.40.
Seprod shares dropped from $45.10 in February to $30 on Friday.
Caribbean Cement had a bid to buy 54,903 units at $28.50 and offers of 7,850 shares at $29.95. Carreras had just 1,233 units on the bid at $77 with 4,954 shares being offered at $80, JMMB Group’s has bids to buy 8,272 units at $19.80 with an offer to sell 6,224 shares at $20, Radio Jamaica bid ended trading at $1.68 to buy 883 units with 30,000 units on offer at $1.79 while Scotia Investments closed the week with 14,753 units on the bid to buy at $36.50 and 14,049 units offered for sale at $37.85. Interest in Seprod has fallen with only 250 units on the bid at $29.50 and selling of 95,352 units at $30, this is way off from the 52 weeks’ high of $45 the stock sold at late February this year.
