The Zagreb Stock Exchange continued to experience a sharp decline in stock prices today, with the Crobex index plummeting to its lowest level since the end of June 2006. The Crobex currently stands at 2,626 points, which is 5.45 percent lower than yesterday’s closing and the lowest since June 28, 2006, when it was at 2,605 points.
Regular trading volume by 1 PM reached around 55 million kuna."After yesterday, we are again recording a sharp drop in Crobex today. There are still no signs of recovery. Although the global financial crisis should not have a direct impact on the domestic market, investors are very cautious and fearful," says Suzana Lončar, director of the brokerage firm Credos. As she points out, it is difficult to assess in this situation when sales might calm down.
"This is a new situation on the stock exchange. We do not have much experience with such crises. The last major crisis was the Asian-Russian crisis of 1998/99, but at that time there were not so many small investors involved in the domestic capital market," evaluates Lončar. She adds that it is positive that trading volume on the stock exchange these days is relatively high, as it is evident that some investors believe it is time to invest and are ready to buy.
Currently, the most liquid stock is T-HT, with a turnover of nearly 16 million kuna. Its price has fallen by 2.61 percent to 238.13 kuna, a new record low. Next is the stock of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, with a turnover of 9.2 million kuna and a price drop of 5.76 percent to 1,640 kuna. Construction and shipping stocks have again come under selling pressure. Thus, the stock of the Institute of Construction of Croatia has plummeted by 4.72 percent to 7,490 kuna, Dalekovod by 4.8 percent to 650 kuna, and Ingra by 7.17 percent to 136 kuna. The stock of Atlantska plovidba has decreased by 7.88 percent to 1,593 kuna, and Uljanik plovidbe by 11.11 percent to 1,119 kuna. A significant part of the domestic index’s loss is also attributed to today’s drop in the price of the stock of INA, which has a large weight in the domestic index. This stock is trading today at 2,300 kuna, which is 8.37 percent less than yesterday.
