The main market of the Jamaica Stock exchange closed down for the first time in four trading sessions with modest declines in the market indices on Wednesday.
At the close, the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index declining 737.68 points to close at 568,896.73, down after 3 days of gains in the overall market.
At the close, the JSE Index dropped 676.25 points to 517,655.89 and the JSE Financial Index lost 88 points to close at 141.90.
At the close of trading, 40 securities changed hands in the main and US dollar markets with 11 advancing, 14 declining and 15 trading firm. Main market activity ended 36 securities trading resulting in 20,815,331 units valued at $96,905,471 in contrast to 79,108,777 units valued at $151,516,121 on Tuesday from 38 securities on Tuesday.
Wigton Windfarm dominated trading with 13.6 million shares for 66 percent of total volume, followed by Sagicor Select Funds with 3 million units accounting for 15 percent of the day’s trade and newly listed, QWI Investments with 1.3 million shares for 6 percent of the market’s trade as the stock closed at it lowest point since listing on Monday.
The Market closed with an average of 578,204 units valued $2,691,819 for each security traded, in contrast to 2,081,810 units for an average of $3,987,266 on Tuesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 1,350,326 units valued at $3,357,049 for each stock traded. The market closed out September with an average of 1,585,081 units valued at $14,071,562 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 7 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
In main market activity, Barita lost $1.49 to settle at $80.50 with 57,624 units traded, Carib Cement regained $3.19 to close at $80 with 26,152 shares changing hands, Eppley gained 85 cents with an exchange of 244,289 shares to end at $14, Grace Kennedy closed 30 cents higher to settle at $70.10 trading 578,696 shares. Jamaica Producers lost 90 cents, to settle at $25 with 34,454 shares crossing the exchange, Kingston Wharves climbed $3 to $60 with 6,884 shares changing hands, Mayberry Jamaican Equities closed at $11.16, after losing 84 cents in trading 39,800 shares. NCB Financial dropped $1 to settle at $209 with 21,145 units trading, Proven Investments gained 90 cents, in closing at $41 with 1,100 units changing hands, Sagicor Group closed $2 higher to settle at $72 in trading 5,771 shares. Scotia Group gained 98 cents to end at $61.98 with 19,764 shares changing hands and Seprod closed $3 lower at $53, after exchanging 22,719 shares.
Trading in the US dollar market ended with 115,593 units valued US$13,607 with the market index losing 1.14 points to close at 197.90. Margaritaville traded 962 shares at 30 US cents, Proven Investments exchanged 41,420 shares and lost 0.9 of a cent to close at 26.10 US cents, Sterling Investments traded 16,500 units at 3 US cents and Sygnus Credit Investments traded 7,115 shares, to close at 14 US cents.
IC TOP 10 focus on QWI
Attention by investors seems set to be focused on QWI Investments, which commences trading on Monday, but being the end of the month, investors could be seeing other stocks recording interesting movements.
Buy Rated stocks had few changes with Elite Diagnostic and Express Catering climbing back into the Junior Market TOP 10 with the price of Elite dropping to $5.40 from $5.60 at the end of the previous week while Seprod returns to the main market list at the expense of Scotia Group.
Slipping out of the IC TOP 10 listing is Jetcon Corporation that remained at $1.80, Main Event earnings were adjusted down with the decline of profit reported in the July quarter due to increased cost that exceeded revenues and Scotia Group rose to $60 from $57.50 and dropped out of the TOP 10.
Market activity, resulted in Caribbean Producers with projected gains of 244 percent being the leading Junior Market stock with potential gains, followed by Iron Rock with likely gains of 200 percent and Medical Disposables with projected gains of 186 percent.
Radio Jamaica closed the week with projected gains of 194 percent as the leading main market stock with the price falling to $1.70 from $1.90 during the week. Berger Paints sits at the number two spot with projected gains of 132 percent as more interest comes in for this stock coupled with reduced selling ahead of the most important quarter coming up when sales exceed all other quarters and Carreras with projected gains of 112 percent.
The main market closed the week with the overall PE of 17.7 up from 16.7 the previous week and the Junior Market is up to 11.7 from 11.3 based on current year’s earnings. The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks averages 7.9 compared to 7.8 the previous week and the main market PE remains at 10.4. These levels of PE ratios point to big upside for TOP 10 stocks.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at an average discount of 32 percent to the average for the Junior Market Top stocks and main market stocks trade at a discount of 41 percent to the overall market.
TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns to March next year. Projected earnings, along with the PE ratio for each company’s current fiscal year are used in determining potential gains with the likely gains ranked in descending order with highest-ranked being the most attractive. Potential 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 as new information is received that can result in changes in and out of the list.
This report is compiled by persons who may have an interest in the securities commented on.
IC TOP 10 relatively stable
The Jamaica stock market was impacted last week by fresh share insurances and acquisitions by two IC TOP 10 listed companies.
Investors’ attention was on pumping funds into Barita Investments’ rights issue and QWI Investments’ initial public offering in the past week and led to more muted market activity, with the latter attracting more than 4,000 investors and in excess of $1.5 billion.
Other major developments in the past week were the announcement that TOP 10 BUY RATED General Accident picked up 55 percent of the Trinidad based Motor One Insurance company but investors hardly seem to notice. Another Top 10 listing, Jamaica Broilers announced yet another takeover of a poultry processing plant in the USA. Market activity in the coming week will be further affected with Proven Investments selling half of their holdings in Access Financial stock by way of a public offer, at an attractive price of $32 each. Market conditions resulted in just two changes to IC TOP 10 BUY RATED list as CAC 2000 returned to the top 10 Junior Market list, replacing Caribbean Cream and Scotia Group moved back into the main market listing at the expense of Seprod.
Changes in prices left Caribbean Producers with projected gains of 233 percent, followed Iron Rock by with likely gains of 201 percent and tTech with projected gains of 167 percent as the three most attractive Junior Market stocks.
Radio Jamaica closed the week with projected gains of 163 percent as the leading main market stock with the price falling to $1.90 by the end of the week. Berger Paints sits at the number two spot with projected gains of 121 percent as more interest comes in for this stock coupled with reduced selling ahead of the most important quarter coming up when sales exceed all other quarters and Carreras with projected gains of 112 percent.
The main market, closed the week with the overall PE of 16.7 down from 17.7 the previous week and the Junior Market is down to 11.3 from 11.6 based on current year’s earnings. The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks averages 7.8 compared to 7.7 the previous week and the main market PE slips to 10.4. These levels of PE ratios point to big upside for TOP 10 stocks.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at an average discount of 31 percent to the average for the Junior Market Top stocks and main market stocks trade at a discount of 38 percent to the overall market.
TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns to March next year. Projected earnings, along with the PE ratio for each company’s current fiscal year are used in determining potential gains. The likely gains are ranked in descending order, with the highest-ranked being the most attractive and moving down the least attractive. Potential 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 as new information is received that can result in changes in and out of the list.
This report is compiled by persons who may have an interest in the securities commented on.