Today, most analysts at the Zagreb Stock Exchange expect the continuation of the negative trend, as bad macroeconomic news continues to arrive from both the global and domestic economies.
Of the 10 analysts from brokerage firms who participated in Hina’s survey, six expect a further decline in the Crobex today, while the others anticipate stagnation. The Crobex fell by 1.12 percent yesterday, dropping to 1,699 points. The regular turnover in shares was 18.3 million kuna. "I think we can expect the spillover of bad news from global markets to the domestic market, especially under such low liquidity conditions. There are almost no investors, with funds this week focusing more on investing in the money market due to high interest rates," says Maja Bešević, an analyst at the brokerage firm Abacus Brokers.
A series of new macroeconomic data indicating a strengthening recession in the U.S., from a large number of unemployed to a decline in home sales, as well as weak business results from companies, caused a sharp drop in stock prices on Wall Street on Thursday. Stock prices also fell this morning on Asian exchanges, with the Japanese Nikkei index plummeting more than 3 percent, following data showing that the world’s second-largest economy is sinking deeper into recession. As Bešević points out, today the release of data on personal consumption and gross domestic product in the U.S. is expected. "A decline in U.S. GDP of 5.5 percent is projected for the last quarter of last year, but given the poor indicators that are continuously arriving from the largest global economy, it is possible that the decline could be even greater," emphasizes Bešević.
