TOP 10 Winners and Losers on the Jamaica Stock Exchange 2018
2018 was another good year for equities listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. Lower interest rates, new listings, and price appreciation resulted in the overall market index ending on a positive note. Things did not fare as for other major global stock markets. Bloomberg has dubbed the Jamaica Stock Market the outlier market. In October, the business and finance website published an article entitled “Jamaica’s World-Beating 233% Stock Rally Continues Full Steam“. At that point in time, the Jamaica Stock Exchange was the world leader, a position it previously held in 2015. So what caused the JSE to outperform well known exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ? Well according to the article, Chinese Investment had quite a big impact on the JSE’s performance. But there were indeed other factors, some of which have fundamental basis. Some of the many reasons are listed below and will be explained in an upcoming analysis.
- Lower Interest Rates
- Decreased Borrowing
- Lower and Stable Inflation
- New Listings
- Increased Spending in the Economy
The main point of this article, however, is to bring you up to speed on the TOP 10 Best Performing Stocks for 2018 on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. For completion, we will also look at the TOP 10 Worse performing stocks from the period January 02, 2018 – December 28, 2018.
The TOP 10 Winners
| Company | Ticker | December 28 Close Price | January 02, Close Price | Dollar Change | Percentage Change |
| Barita Investments Limited | BIL | 49.75 | 7.47 | 42.28 | 566.00% |
| SSL Venture Capital Limited | SSLVC | 1.95 | 0.51 | 1.44 | 282.35% |
| Derrimon Trading Limited | DTL | 25.6* | 7.91 | 17.69 | 223.64% |
| Salada Foods Limited | SALF | 34 | 11.58 | 22.42 | 193.61% |
| CAC 2000 Limited | CAC | 16.9 | 6.5 | 10.4 | 160.00% |
| Palace Amusements Limited | PAL | 1450 | 560 | 890 | 158.93% |
| Kingston Wharves Limited | KW | 77.17 | 32.5 | 44.67 | 137.45% |
| Express Catering Limited | ECL | 7.91 | 4.01 | 3.9 | 97.26% |
| Iron Rock Insurance Company | ROC | 5 | 2.83 | 2.17 | 76.68% |
| Stationery and Office Supplies | SOS | 8.35 | 4.8 | 3.55 | 73.96% |
* Adjusted for 10:1 Stock Split which took effect in September of 2018.
Caribbean Value Investor had previously published an analysis of the Top 5 Performers at the end of the nine month period ended September 2018. At that time the leader based on our criteria was DTL. The TOP 5 has changed significantly since then. Barita stock price has advanced dramatically since and has hit a new all time high of J$ 50.00. It thus copped the number one spot. It is followed by SSL Venture Capital. Derrimon Trading Limited, the number one at nine months, moved to number 3.
The TOP 10 Losers
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Unfortunately, not all stocks performed favourably. Investors in the TOP 10 losers for the 2018 calendar year could have seen an average fall of 37.72% in the value of their portfolio. This is not including the outlier, SILUS, whose stock price was hammered losing all of 83%.
| Company | Ticker | December 28 Close Price | January 02, Close Price | Dollar Change | Percentage Change |
| Wisynco Group Limited | WISYNCO | 9.62 | 12.58 | -2.96 | -23.53% |
| EPPLEY Limited | EPLY | 9 | 12 | -3 | -25.00% |
| Portland JSX | PJX | 7.5 | 10 | -2.5 | -25.00% |
| Jetcon Corperation Limited | JETCON | 3.47 | 4.9 | -1.43 | -29.18% |
| TTECH Limited | TTECH | 4.59 | 6.89 | -2.3 | -33.38% |
| Amalgamated Paper Packages Limited | AMG | 1.85 | 2.9 | -1.05 | -36.21% |
| 138 Student Living | 138SL | 3.5 | 6.08 | -2.58 | -42.43% |
| GWEST Corperation | GWEST | 1.59 | 3.71 | -2.12 | -57.14% |
| Ciboney | CBNY | 0.12 | 0.37 | -0.25 | -67.57% |
| Sterling Investments USD | SILUS | 0.02 | 0.1221 | -0.1021 | -83.62% |
Please note that an update to this list has been published. The list was compiled using the closing prices on December 31, 2018. Click here to view the updated list of the best and worst performers for 2018https://www.caribbeanvalueinvestor.com/news/jamaica-stock-exchange/jamaica-stock-exchange-ends-2018-up-30-percent/
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