Berry
Ashford W. Meikle, Staff Reporter
THE MAYBERRY Performance Index (MPI) recorded an all-time high on Thursday when it surged to 29,377 points, a year to date appreciation of 165 per cent. The index started the year with 11,087 points. Offered by brokerage and investment planners, Mayberry Investments Limited, (headed by Christopher Berry) the MPI tracks the performance of stocks which the company recommends to its clientele to include in their portfolio. An equally weighted index, the MPI now has 12 segments (at the beginning of the year it had 10).
For the same period (January to October), the MPI has outperformed all three indices the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index, the JSE Select and the main JSE Index on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (see table).
"In terms of the growth there is no other year that we have experienced this magnitude... as we have this year to date," enthused research analyst at Mayberry Investments, Keisa Ansine. "We are feeling quite rewarded for having been serious about investing in stocks (for our clients) over the years."
SHORT-TERM CASH INSTRUMENTS
The stocks occupying the nine segments in the MPI are Bank of Nova Scotia, Grace, Dyoll, Cable and Wireless, Capital and Credit Merchant Bank, Lascelles, Jamaica Producers Group, Jamaica Broilers and FirstCarib-bean International Bank (Ja-maica).
The remaining three segments (25 per cent) is invested in short-term cash instruments but these segments, Ms. Ansine says, will move to stocks in the future. That decision is based on her company's confidence in the market.
Essentially, the performance of the MPI validates and vindicates the decisions Mayberry took during the year. "Investing in the stock market is a discipline," emphasised Ms. Ansine. "We passionately pursue the fundamental research and quantitative analyses which are necessary. We then strive to make optimal investments for our customers," she ex-plained. To bolster her point, she cited a decision which Mayberry took that raised a couple of eyebrows.
"People thought we were crazy when we added CWJ to the MPI," Ms Ansine told Sunday Business. "However, we realised the company had potential and matching that with the technical analyses...we realised the PE was way too low for a company of that size. And so we decided to stick with it."
It was a decision which paid off. The CWJ stock price entered the MPI at 74r cents; at the close of business on Friday it traded at $1.90 a 157 per cent appreciation.
But the stock that has done tremendously well and propelled the MPI is Capital and Credit Merchant Bank. Regarded as a dark horse by many, it entered the MPI at $5.90 and has been a permanent fixture.
On Friday, it traded at $26.50 an appreciation of almost 350 per cent. "It has been the best performing stock in the MPI this year," revealed Ms. Ansine.
The latest addition to the MPI is Grace, Kennedy and Company Limited which has seen a rapid appreciation in its stock price lately. Last Wednesday the share price experienced an impressive 13 per cent appreciation, closing at $120.
Ms. Ansine remains upbeat and confident about the future prospects of the stock market and the MPI's further climb. "The companies that are listed on the JSE are here for the long term. They are financially sound and managed by competent and experienced persons," she concluded.
