Continuation of Weak Trading at ZSE with Stagnation of Crobex

At the Zagreb Stock Exchange, low trading volumes are expected today along with stagnation of the Crobex, as there are still no encouraging news from the domestic economy, while caution prevails on global stock exchanges ahead of the regular monthly meeting of the Fed.

All 8 analysts from brokerage firms who participated in Hina’s survey expect the continuation of Crobex stagnation today. The Crobex index slightly increased yesterday by 0.12 percent to 1,876 points. At the same time, Crobex10 weakened by 0.01 percent to 1,000 points. Regular trading in shares amounted to 10.4 million kuna, što je otprilike milijun kuna više nego prethodnoga trgovinskog dana. Only two shares achieved a million kuna turnover – HT and the preferred share of Adris. “Yesterday’s trading on the domestic market did not follow the movements on European and American exchanges, where indices were in the green all day. Crobex spent most of the time in negative territory, ending the day in slight stagnation. We expect low turnovers and index stagnation on the domestic market today,” says Nada Harambašić, chief financial analyst at Raiffeisen Consulting. She adds that the news of the best July in the history of Croatian tourism only significantly affected the share of Istraturist, which strengthened by 2.2 percent, while the prices of other shares in the tourism sector mostly stagnated.

On Wall Street, however, on Monday, stock indices slightly rose due to increasing expectations that the U.S. central bank, the Fed, will decide today on introducing additional measures to stimulate economic recovery. In Europe, the London FTSE and Frankfurt DAX indices recorded gains of 1.5 percent, while the Paris CAC rose by 1.7 percent, due to strong growth in German exports in July. However, this morning, prices on Asian exchanges were pulled down by data on the slowdown of Chinese imports in July. China’s imports increased by 22.7 percent year-on-year, što je ispod očekivanja analitičara i znatno manje od lipanjskog skoka za 53 posto. The weakening of Chinese import demand could diminish its ability to stimulate global economic recovery, now that Europe is facing a debt crisis and recovery in the U.S. is losing strength, analysts warn. This morning, stock prices on European exchanges are slightly in the red. “After strong gains yesterday, a price correction downward could prevail on global exchanges today. Investors are cautious ahead of the Fed’s announcement from the regular monthly meeting, anticipating its new moves, as well as due to signs of slowing Chinese economic growth and falling prices in the British real estate market,” assesses Harambašić. (H)