Investors responded strongly to Caribbean Cream more than doubling profit in the half year to August and a tripling of second quarter profit by pushing the stock up 9 percent on Friday, accounting for the second highest volume for the day. The rise in the stock price resulted in it moving out of IC TOP 10 Junior Market listing and replaced by Lumber Depot.
Lumber Depot returns to the top flight of stocks with earnings per share projected at 20 cents for the current fiscal year and the price just over $1. The Main Market is as you were last week, with no new change.
The Main Market closed the past week higher than the highest level since the beginning of July, except for September 30, another reminder that the market traditionally commences rallying in July each year and slowly builds towards the end of the year. The Junior Market closed the week just above the close of the previous week. That disguises the critical signal that is the market is currently sending. The jump in Caribbean Cream’s price this past week speaks eloquently to the underlying interest that is still in the market and displayed by the demand for Barita Investment stock, with investors’ demand pushing the price within a few dollars of the record high. The broader signal is the big surge that the Junior Market will experience in a few weeks as short term moving averages cross over longer-term ones to confirm a strong rally to come.
The top three stocks in each market saw no change in ranking, leaving the top three Junior Market stocks with the potential to gain between 293 to 705 percent by March 2021. Caribbean Producers heads the list, followed by Lasco Financial and Elite Diagnostic. The focus on all three is on the 2021 fiscal year profit, projected to recover from reduced profit for the 2020 financial year. With expected gains of 151 to 245 percent, the top three Main Market stocks are Berger Paints, followed by JMMB Group and Grace Kennedy.
The local stock market’s targeted average PE ratio is 20 based on companies’ profits reporting full year’s results from now to the second quarter in 2021. 
The Junior and Main markets are currently trading well below this level, indicating the potential gains ahead. The JSE Main Market ended the week, with an overall PE of 15.8 and the Junior Market 11.6, based on ICInsider.com’s projected 2020-21 earnings. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market has been slowly rising, with better profit opportunities than the Main Market and narrowing the gap. The PE ratio for the Junior Market Top 10 stocks average a mere 5.7 at just 49 percent to the Junior Market average. The Main Market TOP 10 stocks trade at a PE of 8.5 or 54 percent of the PE of that market.
The average projected gain for the Junior Market IC TOP 10 stocks is 298 percent and 144 percent for the JSE Main Market, based on 2020-21 earnings, indicating potentially greater gains in the Junior Market than the Main Market.
IC TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns up to March 2021 and ranked in order of potential gains, based on likely gain for each company, taking into account the earnings and PE ratios for the current fiscal year. Expected values will change as stock prices fluctuate and result in the selection process in and out of the lists for most weeks. Revisions to earnings per share are ongoing, based on receipt of new information.
Persons who compiled this report may have an interest in securities commented on in this report.
