Berger Paints is one of IC Insider’s TOP 10 stocks.
The news IC insider broke a few weeks ago, have been confirmed on Friday with Ansa McAl entering an agreement to acquire the Berger Caribbean operations. What impact that will have on trading in Berger Jamaica shares this week, with the price having slipped to $17.31 at the end of trading on Friday, is unknown?
In a week when the All Jamaica composite index fell 4,089.25 points and the junior Market fell 63.94 points, no stock exited or entered the top lists. The movement of prices in recent weeks, suggest that investors can make gains by bottom fishing, when investors push some prices down. Market movement continues to be constrained by near term resistance levels acting as short term restraint to a break out from current levels for the time being.
The markets offer some good opportunities for bottom fishing, with General Accident falling to a low of $2.30 during the week before rebounding to close at $2.80. Caribbean Producers seems attractively priced, with 2018 earnings as the target with the price having fallen to $3.03 with some large volumes trading around that level.
Last week, IC insider.com reported that tTech demand is building while selling has eased with limited supply being shown in the market. This week, the price inched higher to $8.55 from $7.75 at the close of the previous week. Elsewhere, NCB Financial Group is hitching for a major breakout from a wedge formation, the stock is in good demand in Trinidad with a price around J$77.
In the main market, earnings per share for Radio Jamaica have been sharply reduced to 25 cents with the latest results for the full year to March coming in below expectations. The stock remains in the TOP 10 list, with improvement expected in the current fiscal year.
The average PE ratio for the Junior Market Top stocks stands at 7.4 and 7.1 in the main market, these compare 
favourably with 13.4 for the overall main market and 13 for Junior Market, based on 2017 estimated earnings. Several stocks are trading below the average, and have the potential for more gains for the rest of 2017, barring major negative developments.
At the close of the week, IC Insider.com’s TOP 10 Junior Market stocks now trade at an average discount of 45 percent to the Junior Market average, while those in the main market are trading at a 49 percent discount, to the average of the market, leaving stocks with room for growth in the months ahead. At the end of April the reading was 35 percent discount for the juniors and 53 percent for the majors.
