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No Trace of Liquidity

Gloomy days continue at the Zagreb Stock Exchange. Only five stocks had a turnover exceeding one million kuna, and the stock index plummeted by 1.04 percent, closing at 1,681 points. Among the more liquid stocks, only HT and Ina ended the day in the positive.

The total turnover at the Zagreb Stock Exchange amounted to a meager 20 million kuna. The most liquid was HT’s stock with a turnover of 4.1 million kuna and a price increase of 0.41 percent, closing at 221 kuna. The price increase of our largest telecom operator was not hindered even by the news that HT recently purchased treasury bills worth 700 million kuna, thus freezing, albeit at a fairly high interest rate, those funds for a period of two years.

The stock of Atlantska plovidba traded at a total of 3.3 million kuna with a price drop of 1.35 percent. The stock of Dalekovod gathered 1.05 million kuna in turnover with a price drop of 4.25 percent. Other construction companies had a similar effect—IGH weakened by 4.62 percent (392 thousand kuna in turnover), and Ingra by 0.6 percent (460 thousand kuna in turnover).
The stock of Kreditna banka Zagreb also had an unusually high turnover, achieving 1.9 million kuna in turnover with a price drop of 4.62 percent. However, it seems that the entire turnover was achieved through a single transaction since the price did not change throughout the day.

The stock of Ina rose by 3.43 percent today with a total turnover of 970 thousand kuna. The reason for this increase lies in the fact that Plinacro decided to purchase the gas storage facility Okoli from Ina, which is beneficial for Ina for two reasons: first, this company will earn more than 500 million kuna from this transaction, and second, Ina will exit the gas business, which could significantly increase profit margins.

Turnovers at the Zagreb Stock Exchange in January have indeed been disappointing. Part of the investors’ disinterest can be explained by the fact that the extent of the financial crisis on domestic companies is unknown, but we have not seen proactivity from companies reflected in stronger communication with the public, which is one of the fundamental principles of crisis management. (Amir Kulenović)

*The author owns shares in HT