Trading on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Monday lifted the market index to more than 2,445 points just a few points on Friday’s close, but the market could not build on the early momentum and ended the day with a modest loss of 11.90 points to close at 2,421.54.
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.
Trading ended with an average of 126,276 units at $336,827 for each security trading in contrast to 202,160 units for an average of $439,272 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 165,404 units valued at $389,650 and previously 150,098 units valued at $541,417. Trading in April closed with an average of 44,863 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 six stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and four with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial gained 1 cent to end at $26 in trading 4,000 shares, AMG Packaging dipped 10cents in trading of 2,505 units at $1.65,
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.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.
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.
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
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.
