On the last day of October at the Zagreb Stock Exchange, analysts have divided opinions regarding the direction of stock prices, but they expect somewhat lower liquidity, and it seems that all market participants want to conclude this month marked by the largest losses in the history of the domestic capital market as soon as possible.
Of the nine analysts from brokerage firms who participated in Hina’s survey, an equal number expect both an increase, stagnation, and a decrease in Crobex today. The Crobex index strengthened by 0.74 percent yesterday, reaching 2,176 points. The regular turnover in shares amounted to just over 45 million kuna. Since the beginning of October, Crobex has plunged more than 27 percent and is on track to record the largest monthly decline since its inception.
“I expect a similar trading scenario on the domestic exchange as in previous days, namely price stabilization with lower liquidity. I do not believe we will react to profit-taking sales on Asian exchanges that followed this morning after several days of strong price jumps in local stocks,” says Dalibor Balgač, an investment advisor at Abacus brokers. Although the central Japanese bank reduced interest rates from 0.5 to 0.3 percent, the Nikkei index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell by 5 percent this morning, while prices of stocks on other Asian exchanges fluctuated sharply, indicating market instability.
In one of the calmest days in recent weeks, leading indices on Wall Street rose by more than 2 percent on Thursday as investors hope that the wave of interest rate cuts by central banks will mitigate the effects of the global economic recession. In the third quarter, the U.S. gross domestic product fell by 0.3 percent, the largest drop in seven years, confirming the thesis that the American economy is on the brink of recession. However, since the decline is less than the 0.5 percent that analysts expected, this positively affected Wall Street.
