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.
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.
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 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.
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 four with lower offers.
KLE Group fell 10 cents in trading of 50,000 units to finish at $1.60. Lasco Distributors closed trading of 2,323 units and gained 1 cent to end at $2.98, Lasco Financial lost 7 cents in trading 10,995 shares to close at $2.88, Lasco Manufacturing exchanged 9,020 shares to settle at $3.88 after falling 2 cents. Limners and Bards dipped 1 cent to $2 with 5,446 stock units changing hands, Lumber Depot ended with a loss of 1 cent at $1.15 with 297,770 units trading, MailPac Group swapped 8,166,074 shares and rose 7 cents to end at $1.75. Medical Disposables fell 49 cents to $5.01 with 160,455 shares exchanged, Stationery and Office Supplies climbed 40 cents and traded 582 shares to close at $6.50 and tTech climbed 54 cents to $4.75 with 2,000 shares crossing the exchange.
This week’s focus: General Accident is set to do very well. Last year’s earnings grew 48 percent from an increase of 22 percent in gross premium income and a 25 percent increase in net premium. The company acquired majority shares in the Trinidad based
Uncertainties exist in the economy and financial markets accordingly, and it is not possible to determine the exact impact on company earnings for the rest of the year. Actual earnings could vary materially from IC Insider.com’s forecast. Looking beyond the immediate fallout or benefits for companies can be useful in guiding investment decisions for above-average gains in the period ahead.
The JSE Main Market ended the week, with an overall PE of 12.8 and the Junior Market a mere 9, based on current 2020-21 earnings. The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks averages a just 5.3 with the Main Market at a much higher level of 8.5.
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. Earnings per share are revised on an ongoing basis when new information is received that affects earnings significantly.
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