The only major move in the Junior Market ICTOP10 listing, this week was a fall of 8 percent for Tropical Battery, while in the Main Market, Carreras rose 6 percent followed by Caribbean Producers with 5 percent, both dropped out of the TOP10, while Guardian Holdings and 138 Student Living both lost 5 percent for the week. The week’s movements resulted in no change to the ICTOP10 Junior Market stocks but Transjamaican Highway and Jamaica Broilers return to the list.
BuyRated stocks from the long-ago past
The Junior Market index closed up to 4,052.19 points, ahead of the 4,031 close of the previous week, helped by the strong gains in the two newly listed companies; JFP limited and EducFocal that jumped sharply during the week, with the former topping out at $2 to close the week up by 36 percent at $1.36, with a PE of 19 times projected 2022 earnings, while the latter jumped to $3.07 for an incredible gain of 207 percent with a PE of 38 based on projected earnings of 8 cents for 2022. Meanwhile, the Main Market continues to consolidate at a support level of around 440,000 points using the All Jamaica Composite Index, but the market drifted down below that level in the latter part of the week as NCB Financial dropped to a multi-year low of $91.01 on Wednesday, with little demand for the stock currently, but it may find support around the $105 level.
The Junior Market potential gains for the TOP 10 Junior Market stocks stand at 109 percent, much lower than the Main Market at 137 percent, an indication that Main Market is greatly undervalued. The top three stocks in the Junior Market are Elite Diagnostic, Medical Disposables followed by AMG Packaging, to gain between 122 and 133 percent.
The potential gains for Main Market stocks moved from 127 percent last week to this weeks’ 137 percent, with the top three being Guardian Holdings, JMMB Group followed by Sygnus Credit Investments all projected to gain between 169 and 198 percent versus 168 to 193 percent last week.
The average PE for Junior Market is well ahead of the average of 17 times 2020 earnings achieved at the end of March last year in moving to 21.8 based on ICInsider.com’s 2021-22 earnings, pushed up mainly by five stocks, with EduFocal and Main Event over 100 times 2021 earnings. Excluding the 5 highest PE ratios over 40, the average would be around 18. The JSE Main and USD Markets at 15.8 is well off from 19 in 2021. The TOP 10 stocks trade at a PE of a mere 8.6, with a 45 percent discount to that market’s average.
The average PE for the JSE Main Market is 20 percent less than the PE of 19 at the end of March and 24 percent below the target of 20 to the end of March this year. The Main Market TOP 10 average PE is 8.6 representing a 45 percent discount to the market, well below the potential of 20. 
The depressed PE of the main market is an indication that bigger investors are reluctant to be aggressive in buying into the market currently, with inflation, rising interest rates and war populating the headlines.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners, accordingly, the list may or may not include the best companies in the market. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to stocks that often result in costly mistakes.
IC TOP10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns up to March 2022 and ranked in order of potential gains, based on the possible increase for each company, considering the earnings and PE ratios for the current fiscal year. Expected values will change as stock prices fluctuate and result in weekly movements in and out of the lists. 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.
