Thursday, 30th May 2013 | Trading activity was mostly focused on the junior market as the Lasco stocks all traded at 52 weeks highs for the day. Lasco Financial closed at $10.15 up $1.15 an all time high, 154,320 units traded between $10 and $10.15, manufacturing traded 66,350 units and closed at $15.20 up a $1.20 an all time high and distributors traded at $15.40 an all time high but slipped back to $14.60 at the close, while trading 131,348 units. Blue Power closed at $6.81 up 61 cents for the day when 42,000 shares traded. Dolphin Cove traded 208,868 units at $8.35, Consolidated Bakery saw 975,000 units going through the market for $1.01 each.
The junior market index closed at 761.34 up 13.70 points on the day. Technically, this leg of the junior market movement should take it to 950 points with a second leg to 1,350 or beyond. The second leg may seem like a stretch at first, but with interest rates so low the potential for stocks have gone up, making present PEs much lower than they may first appear to be. The junior market index 50-day moving average has crossed over the 120-day moving index and the current level of the index is well above the 200-day moving average. The 50-day moving average is about to cross over the 200-day moving average — all bullish signals.
Investors may have to wait on the next set of company results to see a major push of the index upwards. The three Lasco companies were the main pushers this week. Their last quarter results cannot be expected to push their price much further for now. The stocks are selling at a PE of 10 times the latest earnings, a level that some other junior companies are trading at. Blue Power, Caribbean Cream and Paramount Trading should be releasing full-year results soon and that could help the market move further.
The Main Market | The all Jamaica index closed over 88,000 points when it hit 88,443.97 points, up 494.15 and the highest since January 23 when it closed at 88,841.39. Notwithstanding the index move, the market was pretty subdued today. The major movers in the main market were Grace put on 75 cents, JMMB 49 cents and Kingston Wharves 50 cents.
The JSE market has broken out of the downward channel and is poised for the 105,000, with 130,000 as the next major target.
The market traded 6.2 million shares at a value of $28.8 million as 10 stocks advanced and 6 declined.
