Scotia & Grace out of IC Top 10

The Jamaican stock market saw quite a bit of volatility during the past week resulting from some sharp price movement of some stocks.
The pullback could well be that the market will soon be entering the period when institutional investors are likely to enter the market to reposition their portfolio ahead of the start of the new years and could result in a usual Santa Claus rally starting around the middle of the month.
In the end, Lasco Financial came under selling pressure and closed the week at $4.15 to reenter the TOP 10 list of the Junior Market and displaced Jamaican Teas TOP 10 last week. In the main market TOP 10 two changes took place with Sagicor Group having fallen to $41 and JMMB Group trading at $34 replacing Scotia Group that reported poor fourth quarter results and declining in price from the $60 region of the previous week to close at $54.05 while Grace Kennedy moved up in price and the earnings per share has been adjusted to $4.80 from $5.30 the combination of which pushed them from the TOP list.  
The main market closed the week with the overall PE remains at 15.6, the PE of the Junior market remains at 15.9. The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks average 8.8 and the main market PE is now 9.9. The top Junior market stocks are selling at a discount of 13 percent to those of the main market stocks even as the overall average PE for both markets are almost equal. This is an indication that there may be more gains to be had from these Junior Market stocks than those in the main market.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at an average discount of 45 percent to the average for the Junior Market Top stocks but it’s a third of what the average PE for the year is likely to be of 20 times earnings. The main market stocks trade at a discount of 39 percent to the overall market.
TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns within a 12 months period. Stocks are selected based on projected earnings for each company’s current fiscal year. Based on an assumed PE for each, the likely gains are determined and then ranked, with the stocks with the highest potential gains ranked first followed by the rest, in descending order. Potential values will change as stock prices fluctuate and will result in movements of the selection in and out of the lists for most weeks. Earnings per share are revised on an ongoing basis based on new information received that can result in changes in and out of the list as well.