The number of securities advancing far outnumbering those declining on Wednesday in trading on the Junior Market, but the Index slipped 1.15 points to close at 2,464.04. At the conclusion of market activities, the prices of 21 securities advanced, 6 declined and 6 remained unchanged.
Trading closed with 33 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 3,008,593 units valued at $9,244,861 compared to 4,739,302 units valued at $9,995,916 from 32 securities on Tuesday. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 9 based on 2020-21 earnings.
Trading ended with an average of 91,169 units at $280,147 for each security traded in contrast to 148,103 units for an average of $312,372 on Tuesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to units 133,330 valued at $367,276 and previously 139,654 units valued at 380,345. In contrast, April closed with an average of 447,863 units valued at $1,028,076 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows one stock ended with the bid higher than its last selling price and two with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial exchanged 4,113 units and gained 7 cents to end at $22.08, AMG Packaging lost 11 cents in the swapping of 60 shares to close $1.78, Blue Power closed trading of 25,000 units and added 5 cents to finish at $3.45.
Caribbean Assurance Brokers advanced 1 cent to $2.20 with 18,768 units changing hands, Caribbean Cream closed 9 cents higher at $2.60 trading 23,300 stock units, Caribbean Flavours climbed 50 cents and exchanged 600 shares to settle at $9.50. Caribbean Producers rose 13 cents to end at $2.48 with 583,415 shares changing hands, Dolphin Cove dipped 80 cents in the trading of 500 units to close at $7, Elite Diagnostic climbed 42 cents and exchanged 3,650 shares to settle at $3.62. Everything Fresh ended the day rising 12 cents to 82 cents after investors switched ownership of 19,950 shares, Express Catering jumped 11 cents and exchanged 2,819 shares to finish at $3.51, Fontana closed 3 cents higher at $5.48 with 74,481 units traded. Fosrich ended with a loss of 1 cent at $3.79 with 2,314 shares changing hands, General Accident rose 26 cents in exchanging 630,068 stock units to close at $5, Honey Bun rose 6 cents to $5.55 with 7,596 shares trading. iCreate closed 2 cents higher at 44 cents with 25,000 stock units switching owners, Indies Pharma climbed 5 cents and exchanged 42,298 shares to settle at $2.30, Jetcon declined by 9 cents to settle at 80 cents with 33,915 units crossing the market. 
Knutsford Express exchanged 9,900 shares to finish at $7.50 after falling $1.47, Lasco Distributors closed trading of 76,558 units and gained 15 cents to end at $3.25, Lasco Financial gained 10 cents to close at $2.70 with an exchange of 7,707 shares. Lasco Manufacturing added 1 cent to close at $3.99 with 64,598 shares traded, Limners and Bards climbed 15 cents and exchanged 32,912 shares to settle at $1.95, Lumber Depot slipped 1 cent to $1.13 with 199,124 stock units changing hands. MailPac Group ended 3 cents higher at $1.92 in the exchange of 711,639 shares, SSL Venture jumped 15 cents and swapped 4,286 shares to finish at 90 cents and Stationery and Office Supplies closed 6 cents higher at $6.26, with 22,645 stock units crossing the exchange.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.
The market is moving into a period where prices tend to move slightly downward until early July when it usually, starts a slow recovery, in this regard, first quarter results are going to be important for the market’s direction for a few weeks. Information management presents current and future business developments that will be critical in informing investors.
Wisynco Group generated EPS of 78 cents vs 61 cents for the nine months to March. General Accident released 2019 audited accounts that showed for the first time the impact of the acquisition of their 55 percent interest in the Trinidad based Motor One insurance company at $238 million.
This week’s focus: Seprod released first quarter results after trading closed on Friday, with ongoing operating profits more than doubling from $312 million to $632 million for the 2020 first quarter, with EPS of 86 cents. Revenues climbed 6 percent from continuing operations to $9.14 billion, an increase of $544 million. The big improvement arose from the closure of the sugar manufacturing operations and improvement in profit margin. The Sugar operations generated a loss of nearly $140 million in 2019 and just $15 million in the latest quarter while gross profit margin jumped to 30 percent from 26.6 percent in 2019. The first quarter results are in line with ICInsider.com’s forecast of $4 per share earnings for this year and put the PE at just 11 times current year’s earnings.
The average projected gain for the IC TOP 10 stocks is 338 percent, for the Junior Market and 139 percent for the JSE Main Market, based on 2020-21 earnings.
Caribbean Cement and NCB Financial released first-quarter results in the past week with lower profit than the previous year’s March quarter. As if investors expected the outturn, the stock prices did not seem to react to them.
The three top Junior Market stocks with the potential to gain between 344 to 660 percent by 2021 are Caribbean Producers leading, followed by Lasco Financial and KLE Group. In the Main Market, Radio Jamaica continues to lead, followed by Berger Paints and JMMB Group, with projected gains of 173 to 213 percent.
Revenues grew around 12 percent from 2013 to 2016, then increased to 17.4 percent for 2018 and 14.5 percent for 2019. The company has an excellent management team that is growth-oriented as such investors can look forward to revenues growing in the 15-20 percent range going forward. In pursuit of this objective, the company is putting in place additional storage facilities to accommodate a robust expansion of sales. Investors should not rule out the possibility that they could expand from acquisitions as well as was the case with the addition of the business making the
Trading on the concluded with 33 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 6,671,271 units valued at $14,495,961, compared to 5,285,092 units valued at $16,777,095 on Thursday. 
AMG Packaging closed trading of 5,057 units and gained 10 cents to end at $1.75, Blue Power closed 35 cents higher at $3.75, with an exchange of 26,362 stock units. Caribbean Assurance Brokers traded 88,627 shares, losing 8 cents and closed at $2.20, Caribbean Cream climbed 15 cents and exchanged 1,376,796 shares at $2.15, Caribbean Flavours closed with a loss of 98 cents at $9, after hitting a 52 weeks’ intraday low of $8 in swapping 5,633 shares. Caribbean Producers shed 20 cents in transferring 1,082,082 units at $2.50, Consolidated Bakeries lost 25 cents trading of 2,500 units at $1.51, Derrimon Trading shed 19 cents in exchanging 99,326 shares at $2.01, Elite Diagnostic closed 15 cents lower in trading of 14,617 units at $3.55. Everything Fresh closed 2 cents higher at 80 cents, with 28,697 stock units changing hands, Express Catering gained 10 cents to settle at $3.35, with 29,227 stock units traded, Fontana dipped 6 cents in trading of 246,424 units at $5.28. Fosrich lost 11 cents in an exchange of 1,102 units at $3.89, GWest Corporation ended with a loss of 1 cent at 88 cents with 16,863 stock units changing hands, Honey Bun closed with 137,950 units crossing the exchange and gained 31 cents, to end at $5.80. Indies Pharma closed with 4,940 units trading and gained 4 cents to end at $2.40, Iron Rock Insurance closed 5 cents higher at $2.10, with 100,000 stock units trading, Jamaican Teas ended market activity transferring 204,425 shares to close at $4.02, after falling 2 cents. 
Jetcon Corporation shed 16 cents in exchanging 21,867 units to close at a 52 weeks’ low of 86 cents after hitting a low of 80 cents during trading, Lasco Distributors closed trading of 254,571 units and rose 13 cents to settle at $2.98, Lasco Manufacturing declined by 13 cents in transferring of 16,117 units at $3.67. Limners and Bards climbed 9 cents and exchanged 4,000 shares at $1.95, Lumber Depot ended trading with 646,793 shares, after rising 3 cents to end at $1.15, Main Event closed trading of 746 units and gained 6 cents to end at $3.87. Medical Disposables declined 46 cents to settle at $5.99, Stationery and Office Supplies closed trading of 5,000 units and gained 25 cents to end at $6.30 and SSL Venture closed with 12,841 units exchanged and gained 2 cents to close at 92 cents.
Trading concluded with 33 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 3,721,917 units valued at $8,632,508 compared to 12,280,544 units valued at $26,562,508 from 29 securities on Tuesday. Market activities ended with the prices of 12 securities rising, 19 declining and two holding firm. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 8.8 based on 2020-21 earnings.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging dropped 15 cents in the trading of 484 units at $1.65, Blue Power gained 10 cents and exchanged 30,200 units to settle at $3.85, Caribbean Assurance Brokers finished 6 cents lower at $2.19 with 15,673 units changing hands. Caribbean Cream fell 12 cents to $2.15 in the exchange of 478,724 shares, Caribbean Flavours slipped 2 cents after swapping 3,000 units to settle at $9.98, Caribbean Producers finished at $2.76 after climbing 24 cents with 574,589 units traded. Consolidated Bakeries ended 3 cents lower at $1.72 with 3,000 shares traded, Derrimon Trading added 4 cents in the exchange of 1,100 units to close at $1.99, Dolphin Cove shed 50 cents to close at $7 with 3,454 shares changing hands. Elite Diagnostic dropped 15 cents to $3.60 in the trading of 900 units, Everything Fresh swapped 113,549 shares and lost 5 cents to end at 67 cents, Express Catering fell 20 cents trading 99,779 stock units to close at $3.10. Fontana gained 1 cent to finish at $5.30 with an exchange of 63,656 units, Fosrich settled at $3.94 after slipping 1 cent and trading 1,000 shares, General Accident closed trading 8 cents lower at $4.90 with 347,579 units changing hands. Honey Bun gained 5 cents to close at $5.40 with 5,166 stock units trading, iCreate ended 3 cents lower at 42 cents with 162,858 stock units crossing the exchange, Indies Pharma gained 5 cents and swapped 5,306 units to end at $2.35. Jetcon Corporation added 2 cents to close at $1.02 with 20,300 shares changing hands, KLE Group finished 5 cents higher at $1.65 with an exchange of 6,000 units, 
Knutsford Express closed trading of 3,445 units and dropped 56 cents to end at $8.43. Lasco Distributors picked up 2 cents in exchanging 1,103 shares to close at $2.97, Lasco Financial finished $2.75 after losing 17 cents in switching ownership of 42,023 units, Lasco Manufacturing fell 10 cents to $3.80 with 27,911 shares changing hands. Limners and Bards slipped 1 cent and exchanged 8,000 shares to end at $1.93, Lumber Depot closed 3 cents higher at $1.16 with 88,633 stock units trading, MailPac Group had another significant trading day with 1,472,605 units exchanged to settle at $1.70 after losing 6 cents. Main Event dropped $1.19 to end at $3.81 with 28,442 shares trading, Medical Disposables leaped 93 cents to $6.48 with 33,957 shares traded, SSL Venture slipped 1 cent and 120 shares switched ownership to end at 74 cents and tTech climbed 22 cents to $4.20 with 991 units crossing the exchange.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows one stock ended with bids higher than its last selling prices and one with a lower offer.
Lasco Distributors shed 3 cents in trading of 43,601 units at $2.95, Lasco Financial closed market activity with 14,650 units crossing the exchange and gained 4 cents to end at $2.92. Lasco Manufacturing exchanged 32,261 shares and rose 2 cents to end at $3.90, Limners and Bards fell 6 cents to $1.94 in trading of 12,443 units, Lumber Depot declined 2 cents in swapping 4,795,516 units to finish at $1.13. Mailpac Group ended activity 1 cent higher at $1.76 with 1,472,663 shares traded, Main Event climbed 5 cents to settle at $1.19 with 1,880,010 shares changing hands, Medical Disposables exchanged 114,000 shares and rose 54 cents to end at $5.55. Stationery and Office Supplies closed with a loss of 50 cents at $6 in the swapping of 67,329 shares and tTech shred 77 cents to settle at $3.98 with 238,233 shares crossing the exchange.
At the close, the Junior Market Index advanced 35.13 points to close at 2,414.24 after risen over 50 points at one stage of the day and left the average PE ratio ended at 8.8 times 2020-21 earnings. Market activities resulted in prices of 6 securities advancing, 12 losing and 12 remaining unchanged.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows four stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and one with a lower offer.
iCreate ended with a loss of 1 cent at 47 cents, with 5,793 stock units changing hands, Jamaican Teas fell
The market closed with 35 securities changing hands with prices of 11 securities advancing, 12 declining while 11 remained unchanged. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 8.7 based on 2020-21 earnings. Investors exchanged 24,912,363 units valued at $54,086,454, compared to 115,474,401 units valued at $258,980,019 on Wednesday from 33 companies.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows four stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and four with lower offers.
Jamaican Teas shed 5 cents in trading of 48,718 units at $4.30, Lasco Financial fell by 8 cents in trading of 24,185 units at $2.90. Lasco Manufacturing closed trading of 2,319,260 units and gained 27 cents to end at $3.97, Limners and Bards climbed 21 cents, exchanging 34,694 shares at $2.01, Lumber Depot gained 1 to end at $1.16, trading 180,795 shares. Mailpac Group closed with a loss of 6 cents at $1.69, in swapping of 15,790,186 shares, Main Event shed 40 cents in trading of 13,623 units at $3.85. Medical Disposables declined by $2 to settle at $5.50, in exchanging 300,000 shares, Paramount Trading shed 37 cents in trading of 5,000 units at $2 and Stationery and Office Supplies closed 10 cents higher at $6.10, with 3,500 stock units changing hands.
In comparison, March closed with an average of 226,230 units, valued at $542,563 for each security traded.
Knutsford Express lost 99 cents in swapping 2,198 shares to close at $8, Lasco Distributors finished 1 cent higher at $2.97 with 21,000 stock units trading, Lasco Financial shed 12 cents in the exchange of 5,700 units to close at $2.98. Lasco Manufacturing traded 32,562 shares and gained 15 cents to end at $3.70, Limners and Bards dipped 10 cents to $1.80 in trading of 41,964,069 units, Lumber Depot ended 1 cent higher at $1.15 with 107,917 shares changing hands. MailPac Group exchanged 68,195,556 units and climbed 15 cents to end at $1.75, Main Event rose 25 cents to $4.25 with an exchange of 1,000 shares at $4.25, Medical Disposables climbed 91 cents and traded 30,200 shares to settle at$7.50. SSL Venture closed with a loss of 26 cents at a 52 weeks’ low of 75 cents in the swapping of 5,141 shares and Stationery and Office Supplies closed trading 30 cents higher at $6 with 23,387 units crossing the exchange.
At the close of the market, Access Financial gained $3.50 and traded 100 stock units to end at $27.50, Blue Power climbed 5 cents higher to $3.85 and exchanged 5,751 shares, Cargo Handlers closed trading of 173 units and gained 49 cents to end at $6.50. Caribbean Cream declined 44 cents in trading of 2,000 units to close at $2.91, Caribbean Producers added 5 cents and exchanged 278,793 shares to finish at $3, Consolidated Bakeries closed trading of 7,800 units and gained 8 cents to end at $1.73. Derrimon Trading exchanged 83,275 shares after rising 30 cents to $2.10, Elite Diagnostic traded 29,362 shares to close at $3.75 after falling 11 cents, Everything Fresh lost 8 cents in the exchange of 405,728 units to settle at 67 cents. Express Catering shed 25 cents and swapped 900 units to close at $3.75, Fontana finished 3 cents higher at $5.60 with an exchange of 775,111 shares, General Accident lost 20 cents in trading of 22,503 units to finish at $4.80. Honey Bun fell 37 cents to $5.65 with 53,752 shares traded, iCreate shed 8 cents in the exchange of 334,179 units to close at 47 cents, Indies Pharma ended at $2.20 with 111,282 shares traded after rising 10 cents. 
Jamaican Teas fell 5 cents to $4 with 266,568 units changing hands, Lasco Financial slipped 3 cents in trading 3,486 units to end at $2.99, Lasco Manufacturing fell 33 cents to close at $3.27, with 132,125 units changing hands. Limners and Bards exchanged 176,440 shares to end at $1.75 after falling 26 cents, Lumber Depot lost 4 cents in trading of 175,873 units to settle at $1.14, MailPac Group ended 5 cents lower at $1.58, with 1,318,365 shares changing hands. Medical Disposables declined 50 cents trading of 110,822 units to finish at $6.50, Paramount Trading rose 4 cents and exchanged 750,740 shares to settle at $2.10 and Stationery and Office Supplies gained 8 cents to close at $7.10 with 6,858 units crossing the exchange.