Crobex fell 17.7 percent during February

During February, the value of the Zagreb Stock Exchange’s Crobex index decreased by 17.7 percent, and the total turnover fell by about 20 percent compared to January, primarily due to a significant reduction in institutional trading of debt securities.

The value of Crobex at the end of February fell below 1,400 points, to 1,383.71 points, što is its lowest level since October 2004. Regular trading in shares in February increased by about 9 percent compared to the previous month, reaching 540.2 million kuna, while at the same time, institutional trading in bonds and commercial papers decreased by 44 percent, to 221.5 million kuna, and reported trading was completely absent. Thus, out of 770.18 million kuna of total trading in February in bonds and commercial papers, only about 230 million kuna was realized.

Almost the entire stock market trading, according to the Zagreb Stock Exchange, was concentrated in February on 12 most liquid stocks, which were the only ones to individually achieve monthly turnovers greater than 10 million kuna. The largest portion of stock trading, nearly 30 percent, was attributed to the HT-R-A stock, which, along with the Atlantska plovidba stock, accounted for half of the total regular stock market turnover. In February, the HT stock achieved nearly 158 million kuna in turnover, and its price during this period increased by 3.6 percent, to 228.90 kuna, primarily thanks to trading on the last working day of February, when the company announced its business results for 2008 and announced the payment of dividends.

The price of Atlantska plovidba shares, which were traded for 77.5 million kuna, decreased by as much as 14.8 percent in February, to 655 kuna, while an even stronger decline of 18.3 percent was recorded for the shares of Zagrebačka pivovara, with a monthly turnover of 29.6 million kuna. Their price at the end of February was 2,206.01 kuna. Last month, the prices of most remaining traded stocks also sharply fell – shares of Končar elektroindustrije, IGH, Ingre decreased by as much as about 40 percent; Dalekovod by 30 percent, Podravka and Ericsson Nikola Tesla by more than 20 percent, etc. Moreover, among the fifty most traded stocks in February, alongside HT, only the Janafa stock recorded a price increase, which, with a turnover of 3.4 million kuna, rose by 11.4 percent, to 1,280 kuna. (H)