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Both markets have some appealing choices that offer investors a great deal of potential upside. Investors have been making big mistakes by ignoring these opportunities. The errors keep showing in junior market stocks where many wait until prices start to move before trying to buy, at which time the volumes dry up and prices have to move steeply for sellers to be induced to dispose of stocks. Recent cases in point are, ISP Finance, the stock was available under $3 but there were very few buyers, now there are many buyers with bids in the $6 region, a level at which there has been no stock offered for sale since it traded nearly 23,000 units at $6, earlier in September. Jetcon Corporation is another case, with the stock trading below the $3 level for a long time until recently, even as the profit of the company is running at almost twice the pace of 2015, now they are more investors interested at the higher prices at a time when the supply has evaporated. Caribbean Cream is yet another, with IC Insider pointing to strong increase in profits for a long time, now buyers are in at much higher prices but supply is limited. tTech is yet another example with the stock trading for a long time in the $4 region now there is virtually no supply as interest in the stocks grows.
While some investors focus on trailing quarterly earnings as the basis for valuing stocks, they tend to miss out on companies with explosive growth in profits. There is also the tendency to ignore one off time items. The case of Caribbean Cement is an excellent one. A Brokerage house has the earnings at just over $2 for 2016, but the ongoing earnings are likely to be in the $5.50 region for 2016 and this is what they should be using to value the company. Investors seem to miss the main point. The company incurred cost for reducing labour which will show up as lower operating cost in future periods, but investors don’t seem to appreciate that fact, added to what now appears to be an economy that is growing and could grow even more making Cement, a huge buy. The same can be said for National Commercial Bank and Scotia Group that are having a great 2016.An indication of where values could reach based on this year’s earnings can be gleaned from three stocks selling at PE ratios that are 16 to 17.5 times this year’s earnings with 11 out of the 29 junior listings having a PE of 10 times or more with, an average of 13.5. The average of the junior market is now at 10 times 2016 earnings with several stocks selling below. In the main market the top 11 stocks average PE is just over 15 with the overall average for the market at 9.
Based on close of the market on Friday the stocks to watch in the coming week are AMG Packaging that fell back sharply in the past week and is on IC Insiders top 5 junior market buys, Blue Power with limited supply. Cargo Handlers still in demand with the announcement of the 10 to 1 stock split and with the bid at $87.05 versus the last sale of $86.10. Caribbean Cream with limited supply and increased buying, Honey Bun with good demand and declining supply, but the price could be heavy with a PE of 17. The 2016 fiscal year ends this month, so investors may want to focus on the 2017 numbers as the main reason for buying. ISP Finance with no supply but with bid at $6.50 compared to last sale of $6 and with the success of the $150 million bond issue, could move if some supply appear.
Scotiabank with profit up 47% for the July quarter the stock could be very active this week.
Main market activity has been fluid, there are no indications from Friday’s trading, that there will be much change. Investors should keep an eye on Barita Investments, IC Insider’s Top stock in the main market, with bids at $3.51 at the close on Friday, compared with a last sale price of $3.25. There are currently only 5 offers on the board, amounting to 70,000 units and Scotia Group that is set to report earnings for 2016 in the region of $4 per share, after reporting a 47 percent jump in the July quarter. Investors may want to keep an eye out for Cable & Wireless that could well report decent profit for the 12 months to March next year. Note the company’s year end is set to change to December.
In contrast the main market highest gain is at 93 percent followed by 64 percent. The above data points to the need for selective investment decision making to get the best out of investing in the stock market. Last week IC Insider started a list of 
Derrimon enters as number 4 but the company is highly leveraged but expanding. 
At the close of trading, the JSE Market Index dived 1,017.74 points to end at 159,249.07. The all Jamaica Composite Index dropped 1,138.18 points to close at 176,930.47 and the JSE combined index sank 749.64 points, to end at 171,281.38.
According to 
At the close, IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading showed 11 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 4 with lower offers, suggesting continued fluidity in price movements immediately ahead.
Radio Jamaica closed at $1.40 after 5,000 shares changed hands, Sagicor Group traded 44,896 shares while rising 50 cents to close at $23.10, Sagicor Real Estate Fund traded 16,000 shares to close with a gain of 20 cents at $10.35. Scotia Group closed with a gain of 50 cents at $30.50 with 112,598 shares changing hands, Scotia Investments had 196,976 units changing hands at $26, Seprod gained 1 cent to close at $19.51 with 5,000 shares trading, Supreme Ventures dipped 23 cents with 57,000 units changing hands to close at $4.75. JMMB Group 7.50% preference share rose 1 cent in trading 377,528 units to close at $1.09 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference share closed with 500,000 units changing hands for a 1 cent rise to $2.09.
Jamaican stocks recovered some of the losses of the past two trading days with all three main market indices rising over 1,270 points when the market closed on Tuesday with the advance declining ratio be positive close two to one. The volume of stocks trading more than doubled, the volume traded on Monday, as the volume in Cable & Wireless climbed 230 percent to 2.1 million. 
At the close, the prices of 19 securities gained out of a total of 33 that traded, with 11 declining in the overall market, including 7 stocks rising and 2 falling, in the junior market.
Portland JSX closed at $11 with 15,450 shares changing hands, Radio Jamaica lost 2 cents to close at $1.40 after 84,764 shares changed hands, Sagicor Group traded 24,100 shares while rising 10 cents to close at $22.60, Sagicor Real Estate Fund traded 12,524 shares to close with a loss of 5 at $10.15. Scotia Group closed at $30 with 26,885 shares changing hands, Scotia Investments climbed 50 cents with 4,280 units changing hands at $26, Supreme Ventures gained 22 cents with 2,000 units changing hands to close at $4.98, Proven Investments traded 3,125 units to close at 19 US cents and JMMB Group 7.50% preference share lost 2 cents in trading 563,355 units to close at $1.08.
Trading in Jamaica’s foreign exchange market saw another day when more purchases of the all foreign exchange currencies exceeded sales, with the net intake on Monday, being US$10 million just above the net in take on Friday of just a tad below US$10 million and with the net US dollar currency intake being US$9 million the same as on Friday.
buying rate for the US dollar declined 22 cents to close at $126.87. A total of US$27,926,335 was sold versus just US$25,787,049 on Friday, with the selling rate fell 7 cents to end at $127.65. The Canadian dollar buying rate declined by 66 cents to $95.29, with dealers buying C$2,122,844 and selling C$1,762,850 at an average rate that rose by 42 cents to $98.27. The average rate for buying the British Pound dropped 18 cents to $165.42 for the purchase of £1,495,683 while only £562,174 was sold with the rate rising 72 cents to end at $169.27.
Highs & Lows| Notable changes to the highest and lowest traded rates, for the Jamaican dollar in the foreign exchange market on Monday, include a rise of $1.09 in the highest buying rate for the Canadian Dollar to end at $99.50, a fall in the highest selling rate of 92 cents to settle at $102.11, a fall in the lowest selling rate of $1.80 to end at $93. Trading in the British Pound resulted in a fall of 70 cents in the highest buying rate to close at $170.70, a dive of $1.08 in the highest selling rate to $177.12 and a leap of $43.54 in the lowest selling rate to $161. 
The two stocks at the top of both listing may surprise many, but they should not. In the case of