Investors seem to be shrugging off some of the recent negative developments in the Jamaica stock market, with their activity moving the Main Market higher by the close of the week and the Junior Market just a few points lower.
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.
Developments of note this past week are the reporting of new results, with Barita Investments reporting profit of $1 billion for earnings per share (EPS) of $1.24 for the half year to March, versus 68 cents in 2019. Jamaican Teas with negative EPS of 3 cents after gross profit climbed 33 percent over 2019 out turn. Pulse Investments EPS ended at 12 cents versus 5 cents in 2019 for the nine months to March and 
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.
The Junior and Main Market, IC Insider.com TOP 10 closed the week with Medical Disposables and Stationery and Office Supplies exiting the TOP 10, to be replaced by Access Financial Services and Caribbean Cream, after the latter fell to $2. Seprod replaced Victoria Mutual Investments in the Main Market listing.
The three top Junior Market stocks with the potential to gain between 362 to 726 percent by 2021 are Caribbean Producers leading, followed by KLE Group and Lasco Financial. In the Main Market, Radio Jamaica continues to lead, followed by Berger Paints and JMMB Group with projected gains of 173 to 213 percent.
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 targeted average PE ratio of the market is 20 based on the profits of companies reporting full year’s results for the financial year ending after this year’s second quarter and up to the second quarter in 2021. Both the Junior and Main markets are currently trading well below this level. The JSE Main Market ended the week, with an overall PE of 13.3 and the Junior Market a mere 8.9, based on current 2020-21 earnings. The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks averages a mere 5 with the Main Market at a much higher level of 8.5.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at a discount of 44 percent of the average for Junior Market and Main Market stocks trade at a discount of 36 percent to the overall market. 
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 TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns to March 2021. Forecasted earnings and PE ratio for the current fiscal year are in determining potential gains. The ranking of stocks is in order of likely increases, with the highest-ranked, being the most attractive. Expected values will change as stock prices fluctuate and will result in movements of the selection in and out of the lists for most weeks. Revisions to earnings per share are ongoing based on receipt of new information.
Persons who compiled this report may have an interest in securities commented on in this report.
Trading concluded with 35 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 4,856,519 units valued at $16,938,454 compared to 2,370,191 units valued at $6,835,545 from 27 securities on Thursday. Market activities ended with the prices of 10 securities rising, 17 declining and eight holding firm. The average PE ratio of the Junior Market ended at 8.6 based on 2020-21 earnings.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows five stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and three with lower offers.
Lasco Distributors closed 16 cents lower in exchanging 406,571 shares to close at $3.05, Lasco Financial finished $2.60 after losing 10 cents and swapping 18,500 units, Lasco Manufacturing fell by 2 cents to $3.85 with 9,950 units changing hands. Limners and Bards slipped 1 cent after exchanging 9,144 units to end at $1.79, Lumber Depot closed 3 cents lower at $1.11 with 33,771 stock units trading, MailPac Group traded 210,434 shares to settle at $1.65 after losing 2 cents. Main Event rose 25 cents to end at $4.50 with the ownership transfer of 8,264 shares, Paramount was down 4 cents to $1.95 with 16,434 units traded, SSL Venture slipped 13 cents and exchanged 204 units to end at 75 cents and tTech lost 2 cents to close at $4.73 with a mere 54 units crossing the exchange.
Rising and declining stocks were evenly spread at ten each, with six ending unchanged. At the close with the index, adding a mere 9.28 points to close at 2,369.78 and only partially reversed the 36.90 points fall on Wednesday and the market’s PE ratio closed at 8.7 times 2020-21 earnings.
At the close of the market, Blue Power finished 10 cents higher at $3.64 with 45,200 stock units traded, Caribbean Cream fell 18 cents to settle at a 52 weeks’ low of $1.82 with an exchange of 14,355 shares, Caribbean Producers shed 10 cents in the swapping of 433,307 units to end at $2.30. Elite Diagnostic closed trading of 9,000 units and gained 11 cents to finish at $3.11, Express Catering gained one cent to end at $3.36, swapping 10,511 shares in the process, Fontana climbed 17 cents and exchanged 63,877 shares to settle at $5.07. General Accident closed 2 cents higher at $4.02 with 779,926 stock units changing hands, Honey Bun declined 10 cents in trading of 84,000 units to finish at $4.90, iCreate fell 4 cents to 40 cents with 29,297 units crossing the exchange. Indies Pharma shed 13 cents in the exchange of 29,379 units to close at $2.25, ISP Finance closed 9 cents higher at $15.99, with 500 stock units traded,
Jetcon Corporation gained one cent to end at 87 cents, after swapping 125,336 shares. Lasco Distributors closed trading of 40,920 units and gained 21 cents to end at $3.21, Lasco Financial rose 10 cents to $2.70 with an exchange of 500 shares, Lasco Manufacturing declined 7 cents to settle at $3.87 in trading 3,000 units. Limners and Bards slipped one cent to $1.80 with 246,685 stock units changing hands, Lumber Depot climbed 9 cents and exchanged 62,061 shares to close at $1.14, MailPac Group ended with a loss of one cent at $1.67 with 340,725 stock units traded. Main Event transferred 18,100 shares to close at $4.25 after falling 64 cents and Paramount Trading ended with a loss of 1 cent at $1.99 with 900 stock units crossing the exchange.
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.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The market closed with negative sentiments, with the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading showing just one stock ending with the bid higher than the last selling price and seven with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial dropped $3.90 in trading 200 shares to settle at $22.10, AMG Packaging added 1 cent to close at $1.66 with 37,605 stock units exchanged, Blue Power declined by 55 cents in the swapping of 44,143 units to end at $3.20. Caribbean Cream rose 1 cent in exchanging 50,000 shares to close at $2.01, Caribbean Producers declined by 11 cents to settle at $2.40 in the swapping of 250,367 shares, Derrimon Trading fell 2 cents to $1.90 with an exchange of 115,538 units. Express Catering ended with a loss of 1 cent at $3.34 with 6,229 stock units changing hands, Fontana closed 29 cents higher after trading 233,655 shares to end at $5.29, Fosrich lost 4 cents in the exchange of 1,500 shares to settle at $3.85. General Accident closed trading of 1,241,712 units and gained 27 cents to end at $4.43, Honey Bun finished 5 cents higher at $6 with 120,638 units changing hands, iCreate ended the day at 44 cents, after gaining 2 cents and exchanging 68,754 stock units. Indies Pharma closed trading of 25,051 units and gained 19 cents to end at $2.38, Iron Rock Insurance dropped 48 cents to $2.16 in the swapping of 7,966 shares, Jamaican Teas climbed 2 cents and exchanged 35,234 shares to settle at $4.18. Knutsford Express shed $1.78 in trading of 25,134 units to finish at $7.21, 
Lasco Distributors closed 5 cents higher at $3.05, with 146,146 stock units crossing the exchange, Lasco Financial picked up 30 cents, exchanging 1,000 shares to end at $2.70. Lasco Manufacturing slipped 1 cent to $3.99 with 33,640 stock units changing hands, Limners and Bards dipped 3 cents in trading of 55,556 units to end at $1.90, Lumber Depot shed 5 cents in the swapping of 385,452 units to close at $1.09. MailPac Group climbed 1 cent to $1.68 after an exchange of 5,104,090 shares, Main Event jumped by $1.02 to settle at $4.89 with 1,100 shares changing hands, Paramount Trading lost 2 cents in trading 135 units to close at $1.98 and SSL Venture declined by 19 cents to settle at 73 cents with 396,000 stock units crossing the exchange.
At the close of market activities with 31 securities changed hands, with the prices of 12 securities advanced, 12 declined and seven remained unchanged and the average PE of Junior Market. Stocks ended at 8.9 times 2020-21 earnings. Trading ended, resulting in an exchange of 3,914,568 units valued at $10,441,625 compared to 6,671,271 units valued at $14,495,961 on Friday.
Carib Assurance Brokers exchanged 91,717 shares and fell 1 cent to close at $2.19. Caribbean Cream closed with a loss of 15cents at $2, after the swapping of 550,000 shares, Caribbean Producers closed 1 cent higher at $2.51, with 257,834 stock units trading, Consolidated Bakeries gained 18 cents to end at $1.69, transferring 644 units. Derrimon Trading declined by 9cents to settle at $1.92, Fontana fell by 28 cents in trading 395,419 units at $5, General Accident lost 33cents in trading of 440,645 units at $4.16, GWest Corporation ended with 1,000 shares crossing through the market, after rising 2 cents to end at 90 cents. Honey Bun closed trading of 3,726 units and gained 15 cents to settle at $5.95, iCreate dipped 4 cents in trading of 282,100 units at 42 cents. Indies Pharma shed 21cents in transferring 25,044 units at $2.19. Iron Rock Insurance closed trading of 88,386 units and gained 54 cents to end at $2.64, Jamaican Teas climbed 14 cents and exchanged 253,859 shares at $4.16, Jetcon Corporation closed 19 cents higher at $1.05, with 29,000 stock units trading. Knutsford Express ended trading with 4,906 shares, after rising 49 cents to end at $8.99. 
Lasco Distributors closed with 66,146 shares, after rising 2 cents to end at $3, Lasco Financial closed market activity trading 15,365 shares to close at $2.40 after shedding 30 cents. Lasco Manufacturing closed 33 cents higher at $4, with 34,040 stock units trading, Limners and Bards ended market activity exchanging 225,138 shares to close at $1.93, after falling by 2 cents, Lumber Depot ended with a loss of 1 cent at $1.14 with 193,918 stock units changing hands. MailPac Group finished with a loss of 1 cent at $1.67 with an exchange742,719 stock units and tTech gained $1.04 to end at$4.75 in trading 400 shares.
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.
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.
