Crobexes End 2022 with a Loss, but Smaller than Global Stock Markets

In 2022, marked by the war in Ukraine, significant disruptions in energy markets, record inflation, and a substantial increase in central bank interest rates, the Crobexes fell on the Zagreb Stock Exchange, but significantly less than the major stock indices worldwide.

The Crobex index ended the past year with a loss of 4.8 percent, at 1,979 points, while Crobex10 fell by 8.4 percent, to 1,156 points.

During this time, the main stock indices experienced strong fluctuations at the beginning of the year.

Thus, Crobex peaked on January 19 at 2,213 points, but with the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it sharply declined from February 24, touching only 1,907 points on March 7.

In the second half of the year, it had milder fluctuations, but on two occasions, it reached the lowest level in 2022 of 1,895 points, on October 3 and November 3.

Crobex 10 recorded similar movements, achieving its highest level in 2022 also on January 19 at 1,342 points, and its lowest on November 3 at 1,120 points.

However, Crobexes recorded a smaller decline than indices in many other markets worldwide. For example, the STOXX 600 index of leading European stocks lost nearly 13 percent this year, while the American S&P 500 fell by more than 19 percent.

– The biggest problem of the domestic stock market is low trading volume. In terms of liquidity, the stock exchange has never managed to return to the levels of 2007 and 2008, when it was at the top in terms of liquidity – said Roman Rinkovec, a broker at the investment company Credos, reflecting on trading in the past year.

Another problem is the lack of new issues.

– The listing of Spana shares in 2021 is the best thing that has happened on the stock exchange in recent years, considering the liquidity and price growth of that stock, but there have been no other such issues for a long time – says Roman Rinkovec.

He believes that the problem is also that the stock exchange is not present in the media.

– There are very few new, especially young investors. Young people invest in foreign stock exchanges and cryptocurrencies, while they generally avoid the domestic stock exchange. It is a pity that the time of low interest rates was not used to attract more investors. There should be more media coverage of the capital market as a means of saving and investing – concludes Roman Rinkovec.

Two of the five sector indices significantly increased

Among the sector indices, Crobexindustry fell the most last year, by 6.5 percent, followed by Crobexnutris, by 6.1 percent, and Crobexturist by 1.8 percent.

Crobextransport, on the other hand, jumped by 52 percent, and Crobexconstruct by 15.7 percent.

Among the most traded issues, HT shares fell by 4.3 percent, to 177.5 kuna, Ericsson Nikola Tesla by 7.3 percent, to 1,705 kuna, Valamar Riviera by 7.5 percent, to 30.5 kuna, and AD Plastika, which is heavily exposed to the Russian market, by 52 percent, to 79.4 kuna.

At the same time, Podravka shares increased by 0.3 percent, ending the year at 634 kuna, and Spana by 15.5 percent, to 268 kuna.

The first working day on the ZSE in 2023 will be January 2, and trading will take place in the new currency – the euro.