Junior Market stocks dominate half year

At the midway point in the year, the Jamaica Stock Exchange Main Market is down 7 percent, with the Financial Index down a much larger 15 percent, but the Junior Market is flat, as the JSE delivered 35 price gains for the ordinary shares and 59 losses as Junior Market stocks dominated the top positions for the first half of 2023.
Expectations are that the Junior Market will continue its upward movement in the second half of the year with technical indicators pointing to a big upward push in the market. The market gained 75 percent the last time these indicators flashed a buy signal.
The Main Market remains under some selling pressure and is not signalling a sustained rally in the short term. But June is never the month of recovery for that market following sell in May and go away. July is the month that is historically the period in the past the Main Market usually starts to rally and sometimes as late as August fueled by mid year results that will mostly be in by the middle of August.
There are only two Main Market stocks in the TOP10 with Transjamaican heads Stocks to Watch coming on top for that market with a 77 percent gain, year to date, with it being the second highest performer for the overall market for the year so far. Ciboney is up 59 percent and the fifth highest performer, and the second best Main market stock, thanks partially to a change in the majority ownership to IEC Energy Company Ltd, with the new directors being Nigel Davy, Jennifer Davy, Klyle Davy, Wycliffe Cameron Conley Salmon Donald Patterson and Wayne Wray.
The top performing stock is Main Event with a rise of 89 percent, with more gains expected with the PE ratio of just 10 times this year’s earnings, while Stationery and Office Supplies doubled after an announcement to consider a stock split at a directors meeting on June 21 ended with a gain of 37 percent for the half year as the price pulled back after the directors announced a recommendation for a 9 for 1 split to be voted on at the company’s AGM on July 25.
The Junior Market has the majority of stocks, six, in the worst performer grouping, with Fosrich being the worst with a loss of 45 percent as the price corrected sharply from an overbought position last year, followed by iCreate down 34 percent from excessive speculation from a number of announcements the company made last year.