New bad news from the global economy offers no reason for optimism for domestic investors, therefore today at the Zagreb Stock Exchange, most analysts expect a continuation of the negative trend.
Of the eight analysts who participated in Hina’s survey, half expect a continuation of the Crobex decline today, two expect an increase, and the same number expect stagnation. The Crobex index fell yesterday by another 6.47 percent, to 1,503 points, the lowest level since the end of December 2004. Regular trading in shares amounted to 46.32 million kuna. Analysts emphasize that the influx of new negative news from the global economy and stock exchanges, along with chronically low liquidity on the domestic stock exchange, offers no reason for optimism for domestic investors.
"This situation on the stock exchange has lasted longer than could have been predicted. We assume it will spill over into next year. Although there is no optimism, there are still investors who believe that this is indeed a low level of stock prices and are somewhat replenishing their portfolios with selected issues," they point out at Argus Securities. On Wall Street, stock prices sharply fell on Monday, following confirmation that the U.S. economy is in recession and that the situation is further deteriorating.
The Dow Jones index plummeted 7.7 percent, to 8,149 points, marking its fourth largest point drop ever recorded. The S&P 500 index fell by 8.9 percent, and the Nasdaq index dropped by the same amount. Stock prices on Asian exchanges also fell sharply this morning. On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei index fell 6.3 percent today, while the MSCI Asia-Pacific index, excluding Japan, dropped 3.5 percent, increasing its loss this year to 57 percent. In such conditions, positive news from domestic corporations is completely disregarded by investors.
