Trading in the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange closed on Wednesday with 84 percent of the ordinary listings being active and ending with declining stocks dominating rising ones almost 2 to 1 leading to a small fall in the market index.
At the close the volume of stocks and value of stocks traded, fell by a half of Monday levels.
The market ended with 2,266,721 units valued at $11,726,592 changing hands, with the index falling 6.26 points to close at 3,149.20. On Monday, trading closed with 4,581,201 units valued at $21,905,678.
A total of 26 securities traded, versus 22 on Monday, with 8 stocks rising and 13 declining. Trading closed with 4 stocks having bids higher than the last traded prices and 1 closing with a lower offer.
Trading ended trading with an average of 87,182 units for an average value of $451,023 in contrast to 208,236 units for an average value of $995,713 on Friday. In contrast, July closed with averages of 536,395 units valued at $1,905,441 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, stocks trading and their last traded price are Access Financial Services closing with a loss of 50 cents at $46, in trading 1,127 units, AMG Packaging rose 15 cents to close at $3.65 with 125,763 units changing hands, CAC 2000 fell 50 cents with 5,000 shares trading to end at $6.50, Cargo Handlers ended trading with 6,910 shares to close at $13.20. Caribbean Cream ended trading at $6.50 with a 35 cents loss, after trading 26,650 shares, Caribbean Producers added 10 cents to close trading with 141,875 units, at $3.45, Consolidated Bakeries rose 1 cent and ended with 74,146 units changing hands, at $2.63. C2W Music had 70,000 units changing hands, to close at 38 cents, after falling 1 cent, Derrimon Trading declined by 20 cents to end at $7.80 after with 27,119 shares changing hands. Recently listed Express Catering ended at $5 with 292,114 shares changing hands, after the company announced a dividend of 0.917 US cent per share, General Accident closed trading with 2,000 shares at $2.90, Honey Bun fell 6 cents with 208 shares changing hands at $5.50, ISP Finance closed $2 higher with 9,418 units changing hands at $18,
Jamaican Teas rose 2 cents, trading 23,819 shares to close at $4.52, Jetcon Corporation traded 47,084 shares to end at $5.10, after slipping 10 cents, Key Insurance traded 8,535 units to close at $3.05 after losing 80 cents, KLE Group ended at $2 with 6,000 shares changing hands, Knutsford Express lost 5 cents in trading 5,799 shares to end at $14.90, Lasco Distributors closed with a rise of 8 cents at $6.88, after trading 261,741 units, Lasco Financial lost 16 cents and ended with 26,052 shares changing hands at $4.04, Lasco Manufacturing rose 4 cents and ended with 42,634 shares trading at $4.37, Main Event eased 3 cents to close with 10,971 shares trading at $5.47, Medical Disposables dropped 45 cents in closing at $5.50 with 1,023,000 units trading, Paramount Trading ended with 15,500 units changing hands at $2.50, Sweet River rose 2 cents, ending with 7,494 units changing hands at $3.52 and tTech lost 50 cents in trading 5,762 units to close at $8.50.
Express Catering may have topped out
The bids and offers for recently listed Express Catering may have topped out,
based on the quotes this morning.
In early trading on Wednesday, bids amounted to over 1.53 million units up to $4.71 with offers of 1.285 million from $7 down to $4.98. Bids above $4.50 amounts to less than 40,000 units, suggesting that strong buying may have waned. It is early in the day and the feeling out process could be on to entice sellers to drop their offers and vice versa.
A total of 50,668 units traded so far down to $4.71, with a high of $4.98 for the day. Since the stock listed on the Exchange late in July, the price shot up sharply from the initial public price of $1.50 and induced more than 54 percent of the IPO issue to trade.
Trading up on Junior Market
Trading in the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange closed on Monday with a number of stocks declining just edging out those rising and led to a small fall in the market index. At the close the volume of stocks and value of stocks traded increased compared to that on Friday.
Trading ended with 4,581,201 units valued at $21,905,678 changing hands, with the market index falling 7.65 points to close at 3,155.46. On Friday, trading closed with 3,193,325 shares changing hands valued at $14,765,053.
A total of 22 securities traded, versus 20 on Friday with 7 stocks gaining and 8 declining and trading closed with 10 stocks having bids higher than the last traded prices and 2 closing with lower offers.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average of 208,236 units for an average value of $995,713 in contrast to 159,666 units for an average value of $738,253 on Friday. 
The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 536,395 units valued at $1,905,441 compared to 552,021 units valued at $1,948,762 previously. In contrast, June closed with averages of 395,969 units valued at $1,799,200 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, stocks trading with their last traded prices are: AMG Packaging closed at $3.50 with 18,840 units changing hands, CAC 2000 traded 30 cents higher to $7 with a 32,193 shares being exchanged, Caribbean Cream had a loss of 15 cents, to close at $6.85 with a 731,500 shares trading, Caribbean Flavours closed at $12 with a 3,500 shares trading, Caribbean Producers rose 10 cent to $3.35 with a 618,208 shares traded, Consolidated Bakeries closed at $2.62 with a 15,000 shares being exchanged. C2W Music shed 1 cent to close at 39 cents with a 8,000 shares being switched, Express Catering fell 20 cents and closed at $5 with 1,302,903 shares being swapped,General Accident closed at $2.90 with a 61,215 shares traded, Honey Bun closed at $5.56 with a 2,000 shares changing hands. 
Iron Rock Insurance ended trading with a loss of 20 cents, at $3 with a 327,174 shares traded, ISP Finance closed at $16 with a 4,582 shares being traded, Jamaican Teas closed 25 cents higher to $4.50 with a 12,000 shares changing hands, Jetcon Corporation traded 15 cents higher, to close at $5.20 with a 442,571 units being swapped. Knutsford Express declined 5 cents, to close at $14.95 with a 5,184 shares switching owners, Lasco Distributors traded 30 cents higher to close at $6.80 with 325,195 shares changing owners, Lasco Financial rose 40 cents in trading 79,365 units to close trading at $4.20, Lasco Manufacturing traded with a lost 47 cents, and ending at $4.33 with a 6,963 shares being transferred, Main Event declined by 10 cents to close with 34,541 shares trading, to close at $5.50. Medical Disposables closed 45 cents higher at $5.95 with a 5,000 shares traded, Paramount Trading lost 49 cents to close at $2.50 with a 537,401 shares changing hands after the company posted a sharp fall in profits for the year to May and tTech lost 6 cents and closed at $9 with 7,866 shares trading.
NCB & Express Catering drop out
NCB Financial Group jumped to $80 on Friday & exited the top 10.
Shares of Express Catering were in strong demand during the week, with price closing at $5.20 for gains of 247 percent from the initial public issue price of $1.50. At the close of the week the stock was out of the TOP 10 and so was NCB Financial Group with the price climbing to a record $80, at the close on Friday.
Stationery and Office Supplies (SOS) will not start trading until August 9, when it is expected to surge in price based on the heavy over subscription of 3.5 times oversubscribed with more than 1,200 applications.
Trading in the past week returned to a bullish mood, with the Jamaica Stock Exchange main market index hitting new highs on Thursday and Friday. The trend is expected to continue this coming week as investors react to some new results.
Caribbean Flavours and CAC 2000 that fell out of the top listing at the end of the prior week return this week with the exit of Express Catering , Lasco Financial that rose to $3.80 and Caribbean Cream that returned to $7.
The only movement in and out of the TOP 10 in the main market were Salada Foods coming in as NCB dropped out with gains in the price in the past week.
The average PE ratio for the Junior Market Top stocks is down at 7 with SOS in at a PE of 5 times 2017 earnings. The PE for the main market TOP 10, holds at 7.3. The average PE for the overall main market, remains at 13 and 12 for Junior Market, based on 2017 estimated earnings.
At the close of the week, IC Insider.com’s TOP 10 Junior Market stocks now trade at an average discount of 42 percent to the Junior Market average, while those in the main market are trading at a 44 percent discount, to the average of the market, leaving stocks with room for growth in the months ahead.
NCB Financial and Express Catering the two stocks IC Insider.com listed as our market watch make gains during the past week. NCB has clearly broken out from a triangle of consolidation and seems to be heading higher. Express Catering could possibly rise higher but appears to be fully valued at a PE of 20 currently.
Express Catering volumes settling?
Trading in Express Catering shares declined sharply lower on the Junior Market on Friday, with just 1,663,796 units trading compared to 71,508,426 units traded on Thursday. The stock climbed 60 cents to close at a record of $5.20 with 368,228 on the offer at the closing price.
There is still a large number of bids to buy the stock in the high $4 range up to $5. At this price its valued at 20 times estimated 2018 earnings. Based on the behaviour of investors in Main Event it could well be pushed higher and then settle back lower, only time will tell.
Trading elsewhere on the Junior Market remained subdued on Friday with 3,193,325 shares changing hands valued at $14,765,053, from 72,244,997 shares valued at $309,765,128 traded on Thursday. At the close, the market index rose 36.68 points to 3,163.11.
Twenty (20) securities traded, versus 21 on Thursday with 7 stocks gaining and 3 declining and closed with 3 stocks having bids higher than the last traded prices and 4 closing with lower offers.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average of 159,666 units for an average value of $738,253 in contrast to 3,440,238 units for an average value of $14,750,720 on Thursday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 552,021 units valued at $1,948,762 compared to 571,639 units valued at $2,009,287 previously. In contrast, June closed with averages of 395,969 units valued at $1,799,200 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, Access Financial Services closed at $46.50 in trading 500 units, AMG Packaging fell 25 cents and closed at $3.50 with 4,000 units changing hands, Cargo Handlers ended trading 5,612 shares to close at $13.20, Caribbean Cream ended trading at $7, after trading 41,257 shares, Caribbean Producers shed 14 cents to close trading with 24,986 units, at $3.25, General Accident added 20 cents, closing trading with 340,315 shares at $2.90, 
ISP Finance closed with 6,633 units changing hands at $16, Jamaican Teas rose 20 cents in trading 655,573 shares to close at $4.25, Jetcon Corporation traded 200,930 shares to end at $5.05, after gaining 8 cents, Key Insurance traded 16,750 units to close at $3.85 after rising 80 cents, KLE Group ended at $2 with 30,044 shares changing hands, Knutsford Express traded 9,497 shares to end at $15 Lasco Financial rose 25 cents and ended with 46,624 shares changing hands at $3.80, Main Event gained 10 cents to close with 127,049 shares trading at $5.60, Paramount Trading rose 4 cents and ended with 3,000 units changing hands at $2.99, tTech traded 6,500 units to close at $9.60 and Eppley 9.5% preference share jumped $1.10 to close at a 52 weeks’ high of $7.20, with 645 units trading.
54% Express Catering IPO shares trade
Starbucks one of the brands Express Catering will sell at the Montego Bay Airport.
Investors traded 71.6 million of Express Catering shares in Junior Market activity on Thursday. The day’s trade brings the total since the company’s shares were listed in the previous week, to 176,255,281 units, a very high 54 percent of the 327,500,000 units sold in the Initial Public Offer (IPO).
“A number of the large investors in the stock who had planned to hold them for a while, decided to take profit in light of the sharp uptick in the stock price,“ Gary Peart of Mayberry Investments, brokers to the IPO, advised IC Insider.com. Peart also stated that there was strong institutional demand for the stock as well. The stock traded over 70 million units for the second day running having traded 71,996,755 units on Wednesday. Express Catering’s stock price closed with a rise of 30 cents to end at a record closing high of $4.60 with 71,508,426 units traded.
Trading on the Junior Market remained high on Thursday with 72,244,997 shares changing hands valued at $309,765,128, from 73,477,574 shares valued at $263,785,025 traded on Wednesday. At the close, the market index rose 30.21 points to 3,126.43.
A total of 21 securities traded, versus 20 on Wednesday with 11 stocks gaining and 5 declining and closed with 3 stocks having bids higher than the last traded prices and 4 closing with lower offers.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average of 3,440,238 units for an average value of $14,750,720 compared to 3,673,879 units for an average value of $13,189,251 on Wednesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 571,639 units valued at $2,009,287 compared to 420,660 units valued at $1,338,685 previously. In contrast, June closed with averages of 395,969 units valued at $1,799,200 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging rose 5 cents and closed at $3.75 with 10,000 units changing hands, Blue Power fell 90 cents, to close at $44 with only 213 units changing hands, CAC 2000 rose 20 cents with 200 shares trading to end at $6.70, Cargo Handlers shed 55 cents and ended trading 2,500 shares to close at $13.20, Caribbean Cream rose 20 cents, closing trading with 50,962 units at $7, Caribbean Producers gained 24 cents to close trading with 14,777 units, at $3.39, 
Dolphin Cove ended at $17.50 with 204 shares changing hands, Eppley lost 62 cents in trading 100 shares at $12.38, General Accident added 13 cents and closed trading with 6,500 shares at $2.70, Honey Bun gained 1 cent with 5,000 shares changing hands and closed at $5.56, ISP Finance closed with 367 units changing hands at $16, Jamaican Teas rose 20 cents in trading 427,263 shares to close at $4.20, Jetcon Corporation traded 32,162 shares to end at $4.97, after gaining 27 cents, KLE Group ended at $2 with 4,591 shares changing hands, Knutsford Express traded 8,340 shares to end at $15, Lasco Distributors closed at $6.50 after trading 300 units, Lasco Financial lost 5 cents and ended with 107,166 shares changing hands at $3.55, Main Event gained 10 cents to close with 50,700 shares trading at $5.60, Medical Disposables closed at $5.50 with 14,000 units trading and tTech traded 1,226 units, rising 10 cents to close at $9.60.
Express Catering up 187% to Wednesday
Ian Dear, Managing Director of Express Catering
Wednesday was the biggest day of trading in Express Catering since it listed last Friday on the Junior Market, the stock closed with an 89 cents rise to a record closing high of $4.30 with a massive 71,996,755 units trading out of a total of 73.5 million shares that traded in the market.
Express Catering’s stock price is up 187 percent from the IPO price of $1.50 so far, the stock closed with the bid at $4.30 to buy 303,034 units.
Trading on the Junior Market jumped sharply on Wednesday to 73,477,574 shares valued at $263,785,025 up from 35,527,220 shares valued at $124,668,100 traded on Tuesday. At the close, the market index rose 67.29 points to 3,096.22.
At the close 20 securities traded, down from 21 on Tuesday with 11 stocks gaining and 5 declining. Trading closed with 1 stock having a higher bid than the last traded price and 6 closing with lower offers.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average of 3,673,879 units for an average value of $13,189,251 compared to 1,691,772 units for an average value of $5,936,576 on Tuesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 571,639 units valued at $2,009,287 compared to 239,926 units valued at $680,321 previously. In contrast, June closed with averages of 395,969 units valued at $1,799,200 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, Access Financial Services closed at $46.50 in trading 33,936 units, Blue Power rose $6.90 after diving $11 on Monday and Tuesday, to close at $44.90 with only 200 units changing hands, CAC 2000 lost 20 cents with 10,007 shares trading to end at $6.50, Caribbean Cream fell 20 cents and closed trading with 112,288 units at $6.80, Caribbean Producers fell 25 cents to close trading with 19,172 units, at $3.15, Consolidated Bakeries ended with 32,020 units changing hands, to close at $2.62. Eppley closed trading with 9,500 shares at $13, General Accident added 6 cents and closed trading with 25,000 shares at $2.57, 
Honey Bun gained 55 cents with 2,149 shares changing hands and closed at $5.55, ISP Finance jumped $4 and closed with 5,424 units changing hands at $16, Jamaican Teas lost 25 cents in trading 67,099 shares to close at $4, Jetcon Corporation traded 59,800 shares to end at $4.70, after gaining 9 cents, Knutsford Express traded 6,200 shares to end at $15, Lasco Distributors closed 1 cent lower at $6.50 after trading 216,522 units, Lasco Financial rose 4 cents and ended with 176,765 shares changing hands at $3.60, Lasco Manufacturing grew 58 cents and ended with 646,045 shares trading at $4.89, Main Event gained 30 cents to close with 14,214 shares trading at $5.50, Medical Disposables closed at $5.50 with 42,656 units trading and Derrimon Trading preference share ended with 1,822 units changing hands to close at $2.50.
Express Catering jumps 96% – Tuesday
Marlene Street Forrest – General Manager of the JSE is said to have intervened to reset the price Express Catering could trade at on Tuesday.
Good sense prevailed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Tuesday, finally allowing Express Catering to trade close to levels that large number of investors are prepared to trade the stock. In the process the price jumped 96% from Friday’s closing price and 127 percent from the IPO price of $1.50.
At the close on Monday, bids in the market above $2.29 were cancelled, an indication that the maximum price it could trade at being $2.97. IC Insider.com understands that regulations at the exchange permitted administrative intervention in the trading restriction that allowed the stock to enjoy the revised permitted price range of $2.52 to $3.41. The stock ended up trading 32,750,000 units to close with a gain of $1.67 to $3.41. During trading, the electronic board, showed that 65.6 million units traded up to $3.80. After the market closed a large portion were cancelled since the price exceeded the limit set for the day. The stock closed with the bid at $3.50 which will allow it to trade up $4.55 on Wednesday.
Trading on the Junior Market jumped sharply on Tuesday with the large trade in Express Catering, to 35,527,220 shares valued at $124,668,100, up from 1,438.180 shares valued at $7,648,204 traded on Monday. At the close, the market index rose 40.03 points to 3,028.93.
At the close, 21 securities traded, up from 17 on Monday with 9 stocks gaining and 7 declining. Trading closed with 5 stocks having a higher bids than the last traded price and 2 closing with lower offers.
The Junior Market ended trading with an average of 1,691,772 units for an average value of $5,936,576 compared to 84,599 units for an average of $449,894 on Monday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 239,926 units at $680,321, compared to 74,820 units valued at $371,129 previously. In contrast, June closed with averages of 395,969 units valued at $1,799,200 for each security traded.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging rose 20 cents and closed at $3.70 with 1,733 units changing hands, Blue Power dived $7 after falling $ 4 on Monday to close at $38 with 8,588 units changing hands, Cargo Handlers ended trading 4,853 shares to close at $13.75, Caribbean Cream jumped by $1 and closed trading with 105,300 units at $7, Caribbean Producers gained 38 cents to close trading with 57,863 units, at $3.40, 
Consolidated Bakeries ended with 85,000 units changing hands, to close at $2.62. Dolphin Cove ended at $17.50 with 555 shares changing hands, Eppley gained 5 cents and closed trading with 16,985 shares at a new high of $13, General Accident added 1 cent and closed trading with 80,838 shares at $2.51, Honey Bun plunged $1 with 16,760 shares changing hands and closed at $5, ISP Finance slipped $2 and closed with 23,500 units changing hands at $12, Jetcon Corporation traded 62,653 shares to end at $4.61, after gaining 11 cents, Knutsford Express traded 4,481 shares to end at $15, Lasco Distributors closed 39 cents lower at $6.51 after trading 53,268 units, Lasco Financial rose 6 cents and ended with 57,505 shares changing hands at $3.56, Lasco Manufacturing shed 19 cents and ended with 2,107,735 shares trading at $4.31, Main Event lost 10 cents to close with 20,787 shares trading at $5.20, strong> Medical Disposables lost 1 cent in ending at $5.50 with 343 units trading, Paramount Trading ended with 72,354 units changing hands at $2.95 and tTech traded 4,699 units, falling 10 cents to close at $9.50.
JSE response to Express Catering trading fiasco article
Kino Williamson (l), Head of Finance, Cable Bahamas Ltd. points to the USD label while Scotia Investment CEO, Lissant Mitchell points to the JMD label. Also sharing the moment (from left) are Marlene Street Forrest, Managing Director Jamaica Stock Exchange, John Gomez, COO Cable Bahamas and Dylan Coke, VP Originations & Capital Markets, Scotia Investments
Mrs. Marlene Street Forrest, Managing Director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange responded to articles on Express Catering that were published on July 21, 2017 by IC Insider.com
The response to the Article
Article Sentence 1: “The Jamaica Stock Exchange indicated that the maximum price Express Catering could trade at on Friday was $1.86 which came about from a 15 percent average, of the price that triggered the circuit breaker which is $1.75 and the IPO price of $1.50.”
JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: This statement is partially incorrect. The price that triggered the circuit breaker was $1.74 and not $1.75.
The maximum trade price of $1.86 for ECL on Friday is correctly stated. With reference to the circuit breaker rule, which states that “No stock should trade +/-15% from the close price…” and noting that the previous close price is the current day’s open price, the (open) price of $1.50 was used to determine the trade range for ECL. With reference to the following section of the circuit breaker rule, which states that “…a simple average of the trigger price and the close price, will be used to determine the trade range for the remainder of the day” an average of the price of $1.50 and the trigger price of $1.74 was calculated to determine the trade range for the remainder of the day. The average price was $1.62 and the trade range for ECL on Friday was $1.38 to $1.86, which was +-15% of $1.62.
Article Sentence 2: “Had the first trade, taken place at $1.95 it would have shut down trading in the stock for an hour, but that price would have stood, being 30 percent above the IPO price.”
JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: This statement is correct. The price of $1.95 is within the 30% range and the trade would have remained if it was the trade that triggered the circuit breaker.
Article Sentences 3 to 5: “Regardless, investors placed a large number of bids to acquire the stock which was heavily oversubscribed, when the shares were issued to the public. The attached picture shows the bids above $2.20 at the close which are expected to be cancelled, with the closing bids limited to $2 which is the indicative starting price on Monday. That price will determine the maximum price the stock can trade at on Monday.”
The Jamaica Stock Exchnage subsidiary
JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: This is correct. The Price Limitation of the Close Bid and Close Ask policy states that “the close bid should not be more than 15% of the close price…” Consequently all bids greater than 15% of the close price of $1.74 were cancelled from the trading system. 134 buy orders were cancelled and the respective traders were advised of the cancellations. $2.00 is 15% of ECL’s close price of $1.74; the highest price permitted for the ECL close bid. The close bid at $2.00 is the effective close price on Monday, July 24, 2017 and will be used to determine the trade range.
Article Sentences 6 to 9: “Something must be wrong if investors can place orders into the system only to see them manually cancelled by the exchange after trading ends. This development is public relations and bad news for the exchange, but not many persons seem to care. The circuit breaker rule put in place to try and prevent wild daily movements in a stock prices seems to have out lived its life. It is not working well with new listings as it is preventing orderly trading in most new listings in the early days of trading.”
JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: The practice of manually removing orders that fall outside of the 15% limit has been in place since the implementation of the Price Limitation of the Close Bid and Close Ask policy.
Article Paragraph 3: According to an extract sent by the Jamaica Stock Exchange the Circuit Breaker Rule states that “No stock should trade +/-15% from the close price or the effective close price at the opening of the market. The effective close price is determined whenever the closing bid is greater than the close price or whenever the closing ask is less than the close price. Use the closing bid as the effective close price, if the value is greater than the close price or use the closing ask as the effective close price, if the value is less than the close price. However, during the day if the Circuit Breaker is triggered for a security, the trades at prices outside of the original prescribed band for the security will be disallowed for an hour to allow for the release of market news and a cool down period. The price of the trade that triggered the Circuit Breaker should not be +/-15% outside of the original prescribed price band. After the hour has passed the security will be released for trading within a new prescribed price band based on the new reference price, which is a simple average of the trigger price and the close price. The new reference price will be used to determine the trade range for the remainder of the day. The stock will not be allowed to trade +/- 15% of the new reference price.”
Starbucks one of the brand Express Catering will sell at the Montego Bay Airport.
JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: The circuit breaker rule.
Article Paragraph 4: “If it is were conceded that there is need for a daily price limit, the above rules have been made more complex than needs be the case. There is no logic in limiting one stock to trade at a 30 percent above the last traded price or indicative price and another to be limited to a lesser amount on the same day because an investor buys a stock at 30 percent above the prior days last price another at 15.1 percent above it which limits the trading for the rest of the day to less than 30 percent in the latter case. The new rules that were approved by the stock exchange in 2014 made no reference to a limit to the bid or offer that can be made during the day, exchange personnel have decided amongst themselves to improperly invoke the additional change that limits trading unnecessarily. The stock exchange should make good sense prevail and allow the above rules to be implemented fully as stated without the introduction of rules that the updated regulations do not include and from all indications were not signed off by the stock exchange council, went the change was submitted for approval. If that is done, it would remove the nonsense that now prevails in the Express Catering trading, with a huge line up of bids above $2 that are slated to be cancelled after trading today.”
JSE Market Operations & Trade Response: The Price Limitation of the Close Bid and Close Ask policy was implemented in 2014 after the circuit breaker rule was amended in order to effectively apply the revised circuit breaker rule, specifically the section of the circuit breaker which states that “The price of the trade that triggered the Circuit Breaker should not be +/-15% outside of the original prescribed price band.”
Summary
The amended circuit breaker rule has been consistently applied over the last three years. It was amended to provide increased liquidity during any one trading day. The amending of the circuit breaker rule was done to ensure that there was adequate cooling off period and adjust to market conditions.
In the case of the trading in ECL, there was no trading fiasco. The circuit breaker rule was properly applied and had no bearing on any issues with the new trading platform.
Express Catering enters TOP 10
Ian Dear, Managing Director of Express Catering
Trading started in Express Catering shares on Friday on the Junior Market, with the stock enjoying strong demand up to the $3 level. New information obtained this past week from the prospectus resulted in the earnings for this company being upgraded and it is included in the TOP stocks.
Importantly for Express Catering, the prospectus states that effective at the end on of May, the contract that gave rise to the payment of management fees was cancelled. The amount, the equivalent to 9 percent of revenues or roughly US$1.4 million will no longer be paid and should go towards boosting the bottom-line, and should result in the earnings per share around J$0.26 cents for 2018 fiscal year. The change means it is now a part of the TOP 10 Junior Market stocks. With the strong demand for the stock, it should spend just a short time in the list. The same out turn seems likely for Stationery and Office Supplies (SOS) once it starts to trade, with the 
IPO being nearly 4 times oversubscribed with more than 1,000 applications received for the 52 million shares.
With the initial public offers now out of the way, trading in the secondary markets saw more energy in the past week than for the previous two, with some stocks that were weak before, finding buying at the lower prices.
ISP Finance price rose to $14 after falling to $11 during the past week, but big declines in the prices of AMG Packaging and Caribbean Cream pushed out ISP as well Caribbean Flavours and CAC 2000 out of the top listing.
The only movement in and out of the TOP 10 in the main market were Sagicor Group that spent just one week a short while ago, coming back, as Cable & Wireless dropped out with a big gain in the price in the past week of 17.5 percent.
The average PE ratio for the Junior Market Top stocks is down at 6.6 with SOS in at a PE of 5 times 2017 earnings. The PE for the main market TOP 10, holds at 6.7. The average PE for the overall main market, remains at 13 and 12 for Junior Market, based on 2017 estimated earnings.
At the close of the week, IC Insider.com’s TOP 10 Junior Market stocks now trade at an average discount of 45 percent to the Junior Market average, while those in the main market are trading at a 49 percent discount, to the average of the market, leaving stocks with room for growth in the months ahead.
Last week IC Insider indicated that two stocks to watch were Cable & Wireless with the price around support level and NCB Financial with very limited number of stocks currently being offered. Both stocks bounced with the former rising over 17 percent to 94 cents and NCB rising to $75 from $71.50. Active supply for NCB is very low currently and technical chart suggests a big break out for it very soon. NCB is to be watched for a possible break towards $80 and Express Catering to well over $3.
