The Junior Market regained all the ground lost on Tuesday and more in trading on Wednesday as the market index surged 110.51 points to close at 2520.80 as the prices of 15 securities advanced, seven declined and eight remained unchanged.
The day’s activities ended with 30 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 2,553,437 units valued at $9,523,569 compared to 7,713,659 units for $39,344,491 from 31 companies on Tuesday. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 9.1 times 2020-21 earnings.
Trading closed with an average of 85,115 units at $317,452 for each security traded in contrast to 248,828 units changing hands at $1,269,177 on Monday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 139,307 units valued at $416,403 and previously 143,541 units valued at $424,134. In comparison, 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 three stocks ended with bids higher than its last selling prices and three with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Blue Power advanced 15 cents in the exchange of 17,154 units to end at $3.70, Caribbean Assurance Brokers finished 4 cents higher at $2.39 with 1,750 shares changing hands, Caribbean Cream climbed 55 cents and traded 73,000 shares to close at $2.55. Caribbean Flavours ended 2 cents higher at $10.02 in the exchange of 100 shares, Caribbean Producers slipped 1 cent to $2.49 with 109,500 units changing hands, Derrimon Trading gained 12 cents in exchanging 99,504 shares to settle at $2.12. Dolphin Cove fell 57 cents to $7.23 in the swapping of 5,282 units, Elite Diagnostic ended at $3.88 after rising 8 cents and trading just 620 shares, Express Catering added 6 cents in exchanging 117,458 units to close at $3.51. General Accident jumped 49 cents to $5 with 349,065 shares changing hands, Honey Bun fell 25 cents and traded 1,500 shares to close at $5.15, Indies Pharma closed 9 cents higher at $2.20 with 18,818 units crossing the exchange. 
ISP Finance shed $1.90 in the trading of 6,010 shares to end at $14, Jamaican Teas inched 1 cent higher and exchanged 52,000 shares to settle at $4, Knutsford Express jumped 80 cents to $8.50 with 3,470 units changing hands. Lasco Distributors climbed 73 cents to $3.03, with the swapping of 200 shares, Lasco Financial picked up 10 cents and exchanged 36,897 shares to end at $2.70, Lasco Manufacturing traded 1,018,392 units to close at $4.05 after slipping 4 cents. Limners and Bards declined 5 cents in switching 5,500 units to end at $1.85, Lumber Depot gained 1 cent to end at $1.13 with 95,476 shares traded, MailPac Group gained 4 cents in the exchange of 343,873 units to settle at $1.88 and Medical Disposables jumped 82 cents to close at $7.12 with 6,000 shares crossing the exchange.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.
Market activities concluded with the prices of 12 securities rising, seven declining and 12 holding firm as the market index dived 42.97 points to close at 2,410.29. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at nine times 2020-21 earnings.
At the close of the market, Access Financial jumped 90 cents in the trading of 2,275 units to settle at $24, Caribbean Assurance Brokers finished 20 cents higher at $2.35 with 1,000 units changing hands, Caribbean Flavours gained 30 cents after swapping 200 shares to end at $10. Caribbean Producers finished at $2.50 after rising 10 cents with 783,115 units changing hands, Dolphin Cove surged 80 cents to close at $7.80 with 8,951 shares crossing the exchange, Elite Diagnostic dropped 8 cents to close at $3.80 in the trading of 2900 units. Everything Fresh slipped 6 cents to 71 cents after exchanging 15,000 shares, Express Catering added 3 cents in trading 21,909 stock units to close at $3.45, Fosrich settled at $3.70 after gaining 20 cents and trading 16,158 shares. General Accident ended 19 cents lower at $4.51 with 161,350 units changing hands, Honey Bun climbed 38 cents to finish at $5.40 with 45,609 stock units trading, 
Lasco Distributors shed 80 cents in exchanging 237,500 shares to close at $2.30. Lasco Financial finished at $2.60 after losing 9 cents in swapping 59,900 units, Lasco Manufacturing added 9 cents to close at $4.09 with 29,766 shares changing hands, Mailpac Group added 1 cent and exchanged 380,004 shares to end at $1.84. Medical Disposables jumped 45 cents to $6.30 with 5,094,791 shares crossing the market, Paramount Trading lost 1 cent and exchanged a mere 15 units to close at $1.99. SSL Venture dropped 5 cents in the swapping of 10,500 units to close at 85 cents and Stationery and Office Supplies closed 10 cents higher at $6.30 with 20,251 units crossing the exchange.
The day’s activities saw 31 securities changing hands, with the prices of eight rising, 16 declining and seven stocks holding firm. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 8.7 based on 2020-21 earnings.
At the close of the market, Blue Power slipped 2 cents to $3.43 with an exchange of 6,130 shares, Caribbean Assurance finished 7 cents lower at $2.30 with 24,683 units changing hands, Caribbean Cream dropped 45 cents and swapped 227,357 units to settle at $2.20. Derrimon Trading fell 24 cents to $1.81 with 1,556 shares changing hands, Elite Diagnostic added 26 cents and traded 29,100 shares to end at $3.88, Everything Fresh closed at 71 cents after swapping 32,000 shares and shedding 11 cents. Express Catering climbed 7 cents to $3.50 with 4,559 stock units crossing the exchange, Fontana closed 8 cents higher at $5.57 with 127,121 shares trading, FosRich slipped 1 cent in the trading 5,383 units to end at $3.70. General Accident dropped 48 cents in switching ownership of 697,342 units to end at $4.70, Honey Bun ended with a loss of 25 cents at $5.20 with 6,735 stock units changing hands, iCreate traded 1,276,052 shares to close at 55 cents after gaining 5 cents. Indies Pharma declined 1 cent to settle at $2.29, exchanging 24,593 units, Jamaican Teas slipped 6 cents and closed at $3.81 in trading 81,964 units, Jetcon Corporation added 8 cents to close at 88 cents with 43,792 shares changing hands. 
Knutsford Express climbed 28 cents and exchanged 36,650 shares to settle at $7.78, Lasco Financial slipped 1 cent in exchanging 28,028 units to end at $2.69, Lasco Manufacturing closed 2 cents higher at $3.97 with 36,324 stock units trading. Limners and Bards declined by 5 cents and exchanged 6,040 shares to end at $1.85, Lumber Depot finished with a loss of 1 cent at $1.13 with then swapping of 2,000 shares, MailPac Group traded 2,526,913 units and lost 7 cents to end at $1.88. Main Event gained 2 cents to settle at $4.10 with 673 stock units changing hands, Medical Disposables closed the day at $6.20 after exchanging 10,064 units and falling 10 cents and Stationery and Office Supplies finished 10 cents higher at $6.20 with 14,000 units crossing the exchange.
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.
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, 
Caribbean Cream climbed 22 cents in exchange of 138,754 shares to settle at $2.51, 
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.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading on Wednesday was better than the three to one reading the day before with four stocks now just ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and just one with a lower offer.
Caribbean Assurance Brokers slipped 1 cent to $2.18 with an exchange of 1,500 units. Caribbean Cream ended with a loss of 1 cent at $2 with 37,713 stock units changing hands, Derrimon Trading shed 10 cents in trading 40,000 units to finish at $1.80, Elite Diagnostic dropped 55 cents to $3 with 130,715 units crossing the exchange. Everything Fresh shed 9 cents in the trading 13,500 units to settle at 71 cents, Express Catering exchanged 44,486 shares and gained 1 cent to finish at $3.35, Fontana ended market activity 39 cents lower at $4.90 with 248,422 shares changing hands. Fosrich declined 1 cent to settle at $3.84 with 22,637 stock units traded, General Accident lost 43 cents in the exchange of 1,002,770 units to close at $4, Honey Bun dived $1 to $5 with 158,100 shares changing hands. Jamaican Teas fell 19 cents in the trading of 182,641 units to end at $3.99, Jetcon Corporation shed 19 cents to finish at 86 cents with 249,280 shares exchanged, Knutsford Express climbed $1.77 to settle at $8.98 with 103 shares changing hands. 
Lasco Distributors fell 5 cents in the trading 37,489 units to close at $3, Lasco Financial lost 10 cents to settle at $2.60 trading 11,650 units, Lasco Manufacturing slipped 5 cents to $3.94 with an exchange of 10,010 shares. Limners and Bards finished at $1.81 after falling 9 cents and swapping 24,994 shares, Lumber Depot lost 4 cents in the exchange of 122,067 units to settle at $1.05, Medical Disposables closed trading of 98,399 units and gained 31 cents to end at $6.30. Paramount Trading gained 2 cents to end at $2 with 34,000 units changing hands, SSL Venture climbed 15 cents and traded 3,392 shares to close at 88 cents and Stationery and Office Supplies dipped 25 cents to $6.05 with 29,131 units crossing the exchange.
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
Access Financial climbed $1.48 to settle at $25.98 with 1,000 shares changing hands, Blue Power decline 45 cents in trading of 7,560 units at $3.40, Caribbean Cream dipped 15 cents in trading of 999,791 units at $2. Caribbean Producers fell by 6 cents to settle at $2.70, Consolidated Bakeries climbed 4 cents and exchanged 500 shares at $1.76, Derrimon Trading closed trading of 1,000 units and gained 21 cents to end at $2.20. Dolphin Cove closed trading of 123 units and gained 22 cents to end at $7.22, Elite Diagnostic climbed 10 cents and exchanged 4,000 shares at $3.70, Everything Fresh ended trading with 100 shares, after rising 11 cents to end at 78 cents. Express Catering closed 15 cents higher at $3.25, with 2,759 stock units changing hands, Fontana closed 4 cents higher at $5.34, with 145,155 stock units trading, Fosrich closed 6 cents higher at $4, with 151,000 stock units crossing the exchange. General Accident dipped 41 cents in trading of 1,893,851 units at $4.49, GWest Corporation closed trading of 27,004 units and gained 1 cent to end at $0.89, Honey Bun ended trading with 73,032 shares, after rising 9 cents to end at $5.49. iCreate ended trading with 1,200 shares, after rising 4 cents to end at 46 cents, Indies Pharma added 1 cent and exchanged 26,749 shares at $2.36, Jamaican Teas ended market activity exchanging 129,520 shares to close at $4.04 after falling 4 cents. 
Knutsford Express ended trading with 1,450 shares, after rising 7 cents to end at $8.50, Lasco Distributors fell 12 cents in trading of 93,450 units at $2.85, Lasco Financial lost 5 cents in trading 118,782 shares to close at 2.70 cents. Limners and Bards lost 7 cents in trading of 41,463 units at $1.86, Lumber Depot declined 4 cents in trading of 257,140 units at $1.12, Mailpac Group lost 2 cents in trading of 299,127 units at $1.68. Medical Disposables fell 3 cents in trading 103,945 units at $6.45, SSL Venture exchanged 200 units and gained 16 cents to end at 90 cents, Stationery and Office Supplies closed trading of 34,800 units and rose 5 cents to end at $6.05 and tTech fell 49 cents with 500 units changing hands at $3.71.
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.
