Trading closed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Junior Market on Tuesday, with the volume of stocks traded diving by 59 percent and the value dipping 61 percent lower than on Monday, leading the market into a decline after 43 securities were traded, similar to trading on Tuesday and ended with 14 rising, 23 declining and six closing unchanged.
The Junior Market Index dropped 33.11 points to 4,452.22 after reaching a record intraday high of 4,543.70 within an hour of opening.
The PE Ratio, a measure of computing appropriate stock values, averages 14. The PE ratios of Junior Market stocks incorporate ICInsider.com projected earnings for companies with financial years closing up to the end of August 2023.
Overall, 13,201,837 shares traded for $72,767,087 up from 31,884,375 units at $188,460,185 on the Monday. Spur Tree Spices led trading with 2.42 million shares for 18.3 percent of total volume, followed by Future Energy Source with 2.33 million units for 17.7 percent of the day’s trade, Elite Diagnostic with 1.90 million units for 14.4 percent market share and Derrimon Trading with 1.05 million units for 7.9 percent market share.
Trading averaged 307,019 shares at $1,692,258 in contrast to 741,497 shares at $4,382,795 on Monday with month to date, averaging 524,258 units at $3,037,526 compared to Monday trades. April closed with an average of 449,923 units at $1,781,786.
Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows two stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and three with lower offers.
At the close, Blue Power advanced 26 cents in closing at $3.85, with 6,369 shares clearing the market, CAC 2000 increased 65 cents to close at $6.75 after exchanging 65 stock units, Dolphin Cove fell 60 cents to $21.40 in trading 48,298 units. Elite Diagnostic climbed 30 cents in ending at $3.90 after trading 1,902,202 stocks, Fontana fell 75 cents to end at $10.50 with 127,121 stocks changing hands, Fosrich rose $1.37 in closing at a 52 weeks’ high of $34.97 after an exchange of 575,546 units. Future Energy Source gained 28 cents to end at $6.78, with 2,333,516 shares changing hands, Honey Bun lost 20 cents to close at $9.27 in switching ownership of 15,379 stock units, iCreate shed 24 cents after ending at $3.24 trading 319,360 stock units. Iron Rock Insurance dropped 30 cents to $3.30 in exchanging 140 stocks, ISP Finance fell $7.49 to close at $22 with the swapping of 941 units, KLE Group lost 65 cents to end at $1.95 after trading 5,054 shares. Knutsford Express declined 10 cents to $7.90 in an exchange of 59,645 shares, Lasco Manufacturing shed 48 cents in ending at $5.10, with 57,949 stock units crossing the market, Mailpac Group rallied 13 cents in closing at $3.17 with an exchange of 137,725 units. Main Event dropped 87 cents in closing at $9 while exchanging 61,254 stocks, Medical Disposables declined 79 cents to close at $6 after 574,571 shares crossed the exchange, Spur Tree Spices fell 27 cents to end at $3.80 in exchanging 2,417,836 stocks. Stationery and Office Supplies lost $1.25 to close at $8.25, with 16,626 stock units changing hands and tTech popped 16 cents ending at $3.95 in trading 34,234 units.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.
Big gains for several ICTOP10 stocks
With just one third of 2022 elapsing, it is an excellent time to look at what the markets and ICInsider.com forecast have done. The Junior Market gained 29.85 percent to the end of April, or half of the entire year forecast of 60 percent, made at the start of the year and in the process, the market has surpassed the 29.7 percent gains it achieved in 2021 for the entire year.
The Main Market that ICInsider.com forecast to deliver a 14 percent rise for the year struggles to break from consolidation so far, with a rise of just 4.8 for the four months to April and is consistent with a 14 percent increase for the year. It is quite likely that the market PE could climb closer to a PE of 18, which will push the annual gains to around 30 percent if the financial stocks show good increases in profit for the year. That is a very likely situation as the hike in interest rates is driving net interest income sharply upwards.
At the beginning of the year, ICInsider.com stated, “the market is technically at a support level that is steering the index upwards. More importantly, it is caught in a triangular formation setting to push the market sharply upwards once it breaks out, which is not far off. The market is trading in a channel that goes back to May 2020, pointing to a record high of over 4,000 points in a few months.” So far, the above forecast is spot on.
In addition to the Top15 selection for each market at the start of the year, we added a few stocks. There were nine winning stocks with good gains. The list includes AMG Packaging 73 percent, Dolphin Cove 47 percent, Elite up 26 percent, Everything Fresh 83 percent, iCreate 263 percent, Jetcon 75 percent, Spur Tree Spices 215 percent, Stationery and Office Supplies 46 percent and Tropical Batteries up 124 percent for the year to date and up 64 percent since ICInsider.com added it was added to the TOP10 on February 25. Caribbean Cream, down 7 percent, is the only Junior Market stock selection to fall.
The big TOP15 winners for the Main Market are Caribbean Producers, up 42 percent, Jamaica Stock Exchange at 22 percent, JMMB Group at 16 percent and Proven at 14 percent. Berger Paints, down 7 percent, Jamaica Broilers, with a fall of 3 percent and Scotia Group, down one percent, are the only losers in this segment.
For the week, the only new listing to TOP10 is tTech replacing Jetcon, that held on to a gain of 16 percent to top the ICTOP10 Junior Market movers and dropped out of the TOP10, followed by Medical Disposables with 14 percent after a block of shares that was overhanging the market was taken out by buyers. AMG Packaging rose 9 percent, Caribbean Cream rose 6 percent and Caribbean Assurance Brokers shed 9 percent.
In the Main Market, Sygnus Credit Investments rose 8 percent to end at $16.48 and Caribbean Cement gained 6 percent to close at $75.18.
The average PE for the JSE Main Market TOP 10 ends the week at 6.2, well below the market average of 15, while the Junior Market PE for the Top 10 sits at 6.1 versus the market at 14.2. The Junior Market TOP10 is projected to gain an average of 239 percent to May 2023 and the Main Market 197 percent.
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 the end of May 2023. They are 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 are ongoing, based on receipt of new information.
Persons who compiled this report may have an interest in securities commented on in this report.
Former ICTOP10 stock jumps 130%
The star performer for the week was iCreate, up 132 percent and Supreme Ventures, with a 30 percent price movement in the market during the week, but several ICTOP10 stocks had some noted moves as well.
iCreate, more than doubled, surging from the previous week’s $1.36 close to $3.16. The move coincides primarily with two acquisition announcements with little or no information given as to the cost and funding, leading to wild speculation in the stock. Supreme Ventures (SVL) stock jumped to a 52 weeks’ high of $33.41 from $24.49 at the end of the previous week. The SVL was more solidly based as the company reported solid increased profits for the March quarter as investors pushed the price sharply higher in response.
There are two changes to this week’s ICTOP10 listing. Lasco Distributors returns to the Junior Market TOP10 as Stationery and Office Supplies slipped out. The latter rose 15 percent to close the week at $9.11. The expectations are that the company will have blowout first quarter results, helped by school opening and following a strong 2021 fourth quarter. The Main Market welcomed back Jamaica Stock Exchange share that will benefit from an upsurge in trading activity in the first quarter as Scotia Group fell out, still looking attractively priced at $35.20, with Bank of Jamaica increasing interest rates is positively impacting the results.
The Junior Market ended with three stocks rising from 8 to 15 percent. Caribbean Assurance Brokers climbed 10 percent for the week while Jetcon Corporation rose 8 percent to close at $1.40. Declining were Lasco Financial, down 8 percent and Access Financial and AMG Packaging, down 5 percent, as buying eased markedly following improved results released at the close of the market ahead of the Easter weekend. Investors seem not to be factoring in cost savings and increased efficiency that the newly installed machine brings to the business following the close of the recent quarter. With a 5 percent rise, Guardian Holdings was the biggest mover in the Main Market.
The average PE for the JSE Main Market TOP 10 ends the week at 6.2, well below the market average of 14.8, while the Junior Market PE for the Top 10 sits at 6 versus the market at 13.8. The Junior Market TOP10 is projected to gain an average of 249 percent by May 2023 and the Main Market 200 percent.
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 the end of May 2023. They are 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 are ongoing, based on receipt of new information.
Persons who compiled this report may have an interest in securities commented on in this report.