Investors Bid Farewell to the Worst Year on the Stock Market

At the Zagreb Stock Exchange, most analysts expect a calm trading day today and a continuation of the stagnation of the Crobex index. It is also calm on global stock markets. Investors everywhere are tallying losses as we approach the end of one of the worst stock market years in history.

Of the seven analysts who participated in Hina’s survey, five expect stagnation of the Crobex today, while two anticipate an increase.
The Crobex index weakened by 0.37 percent yesterday, closing trading at 1,752 points. Regular turnover reached nearly 80 million kuna, of which about two-thirds was achieved through bond transactions. "I expect calm trading today, stagnation of the Crobex, and somewhat lower turnover than yesterday," says Saša Vakula, investment advisor at Argus Securities.

On Monday, leading indices on Wall Street fell as negative sentiment prevailed in the market after Kuwait withdrew from a joint investment with Dow Chemical, which is yet another consequence of the global recession. The S&P 500 index has fallen more than 40 percent since the beginning of 2008, with a larger annual decline of 47.1 percent recorded only in 1931. In Asian markets, stock prices rose this morning, but this year will be remembered as the worst in history for most of them, including the Japanese market.

On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei index rose by 1.3 percent on the last trading day of this year, as tomorrow is a holiday in Japan. However, for the entire year, it plummeted by 42 percent, marking the largest decline in Nikkei’s 58-year history. "We are bidding farewell to the worst year on the stock market so far, during which the domestic stock index plummeted by as much as 66.6 percent. We hope for better results in 2009. We will closely monitor the business results of companies in the last quarter of this year and in the first two quarters of next year, as well as new macroeconomic indicators," concludes Vakula. (H)