Lumber Depot is IC TOP10 best performing stock in the past week with the price surging to $2 from $1.46 at the end of the previous week to close at $1.95 on Friday with a 32 percent rise. Jamaican Teas was next moving from $2.48, scaling a number of record highs to close with a gain of 16.5 percent for the week with the price closing at $2.89 on Friday.
Lumber Depot is the JSE stock gaining the most in the past week.
Caribbean Cream is the other Junior Market stock to post good gains for the week, with the price closing at $4.95 from $4.70 at the end of the previous week.
The Junior Market is up 4 percent since the 2020 close, that may not appear to be much, but if the gains continue at this pace for the rest of the year, the market will gain 67 percent get to more than 4,400 points. The market is currently powered by a bullish golden cross, setting to take the market beyond 3,000 points. The release of December results will play a big role in the next few weeks that will add fuel to the current gains.
The Main Market continues to slip in January, but technical indicator points to it heading towards the 460,000 points level on the All Jamaica Composite Index, in months.
The current TOP 10 report is based on earnings for 2020/21 as there are substantial gains ahead, for many stocks in the listings.
This week’s focus: Tropical Battery released audited accounts that saw profit dropping well below the $73 million 
initially reported by the company to just $29 million with the stock selling off to a low of 95 cents but bounced a bit thereafter.
Increase in taxation, depreciation and finance cost, were the main reasons for the decline in profit. ICInsider.com projects 8 cents per share earnings for the current year.
The audited accounts state that 1.3 billion shares are issued by the company, but further on in the note on share capital, it reports that a resolution was passed to increase the share capital by subdividing 250,000 the then issued shares by 4,550, resulting in 1.130 billion shares, instead of 1.1375 billion units that were issued. The note also suggests that the company issued 325 million shares to the public but omits to state that a portion was sold on behalf of existing shareholders.
The top three stocks in the Junior Market with the potential to gain between 208 to 363 percent are Caribbean Producers followed by Elite Diagnostic and Lasco Financial. With expected gains of 124 to 331 percent, the top three Main Market stocks are, Berger Paints followed by Scotia Group and Carreras.
The local stock market’s targeted average PE ratio is 20 based on profits of companies reporting full year’s results, from now to the second quarter in 2021. The Junior and Main markets are currently trading well below the market average, indicating strong gains ahead. The JSE Main Market ended the week, with an overall PE of 17.1 and the Junior Market 15, based on ICInsider.com’s projected 2020-21 earnings. The PE ratio for the Junior Market Top 10 stocks average a mere 7.9 at just 53 percent of the market average. The Main Market TOP 10 stocks trade at a PE of 9.3 or 55 percent of the PE of that market.
The average projected gain for the Junior Market IC TOP 10 stocks is 174 percent and 127 percent for the JSE Main Market, based on 2020-21 earnings. IC TOP10 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 movements in and out of the lists weekly. 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.
