Market activity ended on Thursday, with the volume of stocks traded rising 54 percent and the value 455 percent more than on Wednesday at the close of the Jamaica Stock Exchange Main Market as rising stocks were edged out by those declining.
The All Jamaican Composite Index lost 2,109.81 points to settle at 458,827.85, the JSE Main Index declined 1,867.86 points to close at 400,487.74 and the JSE Financial Index remained unchanged at 94.50.
Trading ended with 57 securities compared to 55 on Wednesday, with 21 rising, 24 declining and 12 ending unchanged.
The PE Ratio, a formula for computing appropriate stock values, averages 14.5. The JSE Main and USD Market PE ratios are computed based on ICInsider.com’s forecasted earnings for companies with financial years ending up to August 2023.
Overall, 20,316,947 shares were exchanged for $488,632,009 versus 13,212,264 units at $88,081,914 on Wednesday. Transjamaican Highway led trading with 5.40 million shares for 26.6 percent of total volume, followed by Wigton Windfarm with 2.90 million units for 14.3 percent of the day’s trade, Productive Business Solutions 9.75% preference share chipped in with 2.88 million units for 14.2 percent market share, Sagicor Select Financial Fund with 1.84 million units for 9.1 percent market share and QWI Investments with 1.38 million units for 6.8 percent market share.
Trading averages 356,438 units at $8,572,491, compared to 240,223 shares at $1,601,489 on Wednesday and month to date, an average of 242,886 units at $4,584,264, compared to 228,534 units at $4,080,209 on the previous trading day. April closed with an average of 532,209 units at $5,709,319.
Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator shows nine stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and three with lower offers.
At the close, Barita Investments shed 55 cents to end at $89.35 in exchanging 5,007 shares, Berger Paints lost $1.05 in closing at $11.20, with 2,789 stocks crossing the exchange, Caribbean Cement declined $1.01 to $63.99, with 10,812 units clearing the market. Caribbean Producers fell 67 cents to end at $17.83 with an exchange of 913,139 stock units, Eppley advanced $1 to $46 while exchanging 454 units, Eppley Caribbean Property Fund increased 30 cents to end at $42.30 in switching ownership of 1,789 stock units. GraceKennedy lost $1.99 to $110.50 in trading 126,197 shares, Jamaica Broilers climbed $1.48 to close at $28.50, with 58,631 stocks changing hands, JMMB Group dropped 50 cents in closing at $46 after exchanging 214,420 units. Key Insurance fell 65 cents to $4.05 and closed with an exchange of 460,091 shares, Massy Holdings slipped 50 cents to $97, with 28,231 stock units crossing the market, MPC Caribbean Clean Energy rallied $15.26 in ending at $107.26 after trading 46 stocks. NCB Financial popped $3 in closing at $115 in an exchange of 129,265 units, 138 Student Living shed 85 cents to end at $4.40, with 898,887 stocks crossing the market, Palace Amusement declined $169.02 to close at $950 in exchanging 11 shares. PanJam Investment gained $1 to $67 with the swapping of 831,574 stock units, Sagicor Group declined $1.50 to end at $55 after trading 22,168 stocks, Salada Foods shed 38 cents in ending at $5.66 while exchanging 5,525 shares. Scotia Group rose 75 cents to $36.84 after exchanging 146,609 units, Supreme Ventures advanced 99 cents to close at $31 with an exchange of 290,748 stock units, Sygnus Credit Investments fell 50 cents to $16.50, with 123,725 shares crossing the market and Sygnus Real Estate Finance popped $1.64 to $16.80 after exchanging 5,200 units.
In the preference segment, Productive Business Solutions 9.75% preference share rallied $1.25 to $108.25, closing after 2,877,023 stocks changed hands.
Prices of securities trading are those for the last transaction of each stock unless otherwise stated.
RJR back in 3rd spot as Access jumps 22%
There is only one change to ICInsider.com TOP10 listings this week, with Radio Jamaica coming back in the Main Market list at position 3. Following an earnings upgrade for the 2023 fiscal year, it replaces Jamaica Stock Exchange that ICInsider.com projects to have explosive results for the first quarter.
In the wider market, Junior Market stocks keep on piling the pressure on the main market with the former closing the week at a record high, with year to date gains of 32.8 percent and is well on the way to ICInsider.com forecast of 60 percent for the year.
Thanks to a takeover announcement of AS Bryden, a Trinidad based company by Seprod, the Main Market moved higher for the week, with the All Jamaica Index just under 460,000 points, still well below 2020 high.
TOP10, Access Financial shares moved higher this past week as selling seems to have dried up and led the stock to a 22 percent rise during the week, to be the best performing stock in the TOP10. Access Financial has been beaten up for more than two years but is now worth watching. On Friday, well ahead of the close of the market, a buy order for 100,000 Access Financial shares was placed at $25.60, but only18,000 units were filled up to the close. There were no stocks on offer with any sizable quantity close to the bid price just before close, indicating that the price is heading higher.
Elite Diagnostic gained 8 percent to close the week at $3.90, but Caribbean Assurance Brokers that reported a profit for the first quarter versus a loss in 2021, fell by 6 percent and so did General Accident that is said to be having a good 2022, with Trinidad and Barbados expected to deliver positive results versus a loss of around $200 million in 2021. Movement of main market stocks was more subdued than their junior counterpart, with the Jamaica Stock Exchange rising a mere 4 percent and selling at 8 times this year’s earnings, with a blowout first quarter results due shortly. Caribbean Cement, surprisingly, fell 8 percent as buying interest in the stock is low, even as the first quarter results suggest the stock is highly undervalued.
The average PE for the JSE Main Market TOP 10 ends the week at 6.2, well below the market average of 15.5, while the Junior Market PE for the TOP10, sits at 6.2 versus the market at 13.8. The Junior Market TOP10 is projected to gain an average of 230 percent to May 2023 and the Main Market 201 percent.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners, accordingly, the list may or may not include the best companies in the market. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to stocks that often result in costly mistakes.
IC TOP10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns up to the end of May 2023 and are ranked in order of potential gains, based on the possible increase for each company, considering the earnings and PE ratios for the current fiscal year. Expected values will change as stock prices fluctuate and result in weekly movements in and out of the lists. Revisions to earnings are ongoing, based on receipt of new information.
Persons who compiled this report may have an interest in securities commented on in this report.
Big gains for several ICTOP10 stocks
With just one third of 2022 elapsing, it is an excellent time to look at what the markets and ICInsider.com forecast have done. The Junior Market gained 29.85 percent to the end of April, or half of the entire year forecast of 60 percent, made at the start of the year and in the process, the market has surpassed the 29.7 percent gains it achieved in 2021 for the entire year.
The Main Market that ICInsider.com forecast to deliver a 14 percent rise for the year struggles to break from consolidation so far, with a rise of just 4.8 for the four months to April and is consistent with a 14 percent increase for the year. It is quite likely that the market PE could climb closer to a PE of 18, which will push the annual gains to around 30 percent if the financial stocks show good increases in profit for the year. That is a very likely situation as the hike in interest rates is driving net interest income sharply upwards.
At the beginning of the year, ICInsider.com stated, “the market is technically at a support level that is steering the index upwards. More importantly, it is caught in a triangular formation setting to push the market sharply upwards once it breaks out, which is not far off. The market is trading in a channel that goes back to May 2020, pointing to a record high of over 4,000 points in a few months.” So far, the above forecast is spot on.
In addition to the Top15 selection for each market at the start of the year, we added a few stocks. There were nine winning stocks with good gains. The list includes AMG Packaging 73 percent, Dolphin Cove 47 percent, Elite up 26 percent, Everything Fresh 83 percent, iCreate 263 percent, Jetcon 75 percent, Spur Tree Spices 215 percent, Stationery and Office Supplies 46 percent and Tropical Batteries up 124 percent for the year to date and up 64 percent since ICInsider.com added it was added to the TOP10 on February 25. Caribbean Cream, down 7 percent, is the only Junior Market stock selection to fall.
The big TOP15 winners for the Main Market are Caribbean Producers, up 42 percent, Jamaica Stock Exchange at 22 percent, JMMB Group at 16 percent and Proven at 14 percent. Berger Paints, down 7 percent, Jamaica Broilers, with a fall of 3 percent and Scotia Group, down one percent, are the only losers in this segment.
For the week, the only new listing to TOP10 is tTech replacing Jetcon, that held on to a gain of 16 percent to top the ICTOP10 Junior Market movers and dropped out of the TOP10, followed by Medical Disposables with 14 percent after a block of shares that was overhanging the market was taken out by buyers. AMG Packaging rose 9 percent, Caribbean Cream rose 6 percent and Caribbean Assurance Brokers shed 9 percent.
In the Main Market, Sygnus Credit Investments rose 8 percent to end at $16.48 and Caribbean Cement gained 6 percent to close at $75.18.
The average PE for the JSE Main Market TOP 10 ends the week at 6.2, well below the market average of 15, while the Junior Market PE for the Top 10 sits at 6.1 versus the market at 14.2. The Junior Market TOP10 is projected to gain an average of 239 percent to May 2023 and the Main Market 197 percent.
ICTOP10 focuses on likely yearly winners, accordingly, the list may or may not include the best companies in the market. ICInsider.com ranks stocks based on projected earnings to highlight winners from the rest, allowing investors to focus on potential winning stocks and helping to remove emotional attachments to stocks that often result in costly mistakes.
IC TOP10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns up to the end of May 2023. They are ranked in order of potential gains, based on the possible increase for each company, considering the earnings and PE ratios for the current fiscal year. Expected values will change as stock prices fluctuate and result in weekly movements in and out of the lists. Revisions to earnings are ongoing, based on receipt of new information.
Persons who compiled this report may have an interest in securities commented on in this report.