The Junior Market ended October with the market index declining by 168.78 points year-to-date, or 4.96 percent to 3,232.63 points on Friday, from the 2025 close of 3,401.41. The move reflects a major rebound from the 15.5 percent fall in early August, fueled a great deal by a sharp decline in – Fosrich, Derrimon Trading and Woodcats International, three of the market’s heavily weighted stocks.
The decline and bottoming of the market reflect a long-term trend with a sell-off of stocks in May, with the market bottoming out in the summer months. This year’s sell-off started in March and accelerated in April and May. Companies reporting solid profit increases over the 2025 fiscal year attracted more buying interest and, in some cases, drove prices higher, with all TOP10 companies recording increased profits this year.
The weakness in the market index took place despite advances from several securities, led by Jetcon Corporation, which jumped more than 283 percent. Several securities lost more than half of their value, as most stocks declining suffered from reduced profits or incurred losses.
Among the top gainers, Jetcon Corporation led with a gain of 283.33 percent, following vastly improved results driven by revenues up by more than 100 percent and profits jumping over 170 percent over 2025. Caribbean Cream climbed 123.92 percent, following a 9 percent jump in revenues and, more importantly, profits for the half year to August surged from a loss of $9.5 million to a profit of $114 million. R.A. Williams Distributors rallied 86.49 percent as the company returned to profit of just under $50 million for the first quarter, more than 50 percent for the company’s full year 2024 results.
One Great Studio gained 62.86 percent, recovering from an oversold position. Image Plus Consultants rose 50 percent, and MFS Capital climbed by 41.03 percent. Future Energy rallied by 26.71 percent, Atlantic Hardware jumped 23.65 percent, Spur Tree Spices is up 20.69 percent helped by improved six months results and Dolla Financial Services rounded out the top ten with a gain of 14.52 percent.
Falling stocks was led by, Kintyre Holdings, the weakest performer, declining 75.71 percent, before the shares were suspended earlier in the year, followed by CAC 2000 at 68.18 percent as profit performance worsened for the nine months and Main Event at 48.05 percent, following a sharp fall in revenues and a fall in profit for the nine months and the quarter to July. Caribbean Flavours & Fragrances lost 38.92 percent, Fosrich fell 36.95 percent and Edufocal dropped 35.71 percent. Blue Power Group declined 26.89 percent, Knutsford Express Services fell 26.64 percent, Derrimon Trading lost 26.59 percent, and Consolidated Bakeries shed 23.91 percent.
Trading ended with just 38 securities changing hands compared with 37 on Thursday and ending with prices of 11 rising, 16 declining and 11 closing unchanged.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average PE Ratio of 14.3, based on last traded prices in conjunction with earnings projected by ICInsider.com for financial years ending around August 2025.
Only 500 million shares were offered at $1 each of which just 100 million units were earmarked for the general public. Applications for all reserved shares have been fully allotted. The General Public pool was oversubscribed and applicants will be allotted the first 100,000 shares applied for and 64.48 percent of the balance, JMMB Securities, the brokers for the issue stated in a release on Friday.
Revenues in 2023 amounted to $1.4 billion with a profit of $147 million before tax. Revenues declined from the 2021 and 2022 levels of $1.67 billion with profit before tax of $318 million and $290 million respectively. Revenues of $440 million were generated in the September quarter up 30 percent from $339 million in 2023 and for the nine months to September, revenues climbed by 12 percent to $1.23 billion from $1.1 billion in 2023. Profit for the quarter before taxation was $18.7 million versus $69 million and for the year to September 2024 – $84 million compared with $236 million in 2023.