March 29 (SeeNews) - Croatian shipping company Atlantska Plovidba [ZSE:ATPL-R-A] led the gainers among the blue chips on the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) on Wednesday, bourse data showed.
Atlantska Plovidba's shares closed 2.85% higher at 448.76 kuna ($64.9/60.3 euro), as 5,189 shares changed hands.
Member of Croatia's privately-held Agrokor concern, ice cream and frozen food producer Ledo [ZSE:LEDO-R-A], generated the highest trading turnover of 9.5 million kuna. The company also led the blue-chip decliners, as its share price fell 11.59% to 5,987.20 kuna.
The bourse's total trading turnover jumped to 49.3 million kuna on Wednesday from 21.8 million kuna on Tuesday.
The 25-share benchmark CROBEX index of the ZSE dropped 2.98% to 2,015.12 points, after edging down 0.91% on Tuesday.
The narrower of the bourse's two blue-chip indices, the CROBEX10, which tracks the leading companies in terms of free float, market capitalisation and liquidity, decreased 2.72% to 1,156.26 points after falling 0.81% in the previous trading session.
The fixed-income CROBIS index edged down 0.42% to 109.6094 points.
The bourse's performance has been impacted by the financial difficulties experienced by Croatian concern Agrokor, as investors fear future developments in the company, an analyst at the local unit of Erste Bank told SeeNews on Wednesday.
"The shares of Agrokor's subsidiaries mostly have born the consequences, but the negative sentiment has spilled over to the rest of the market, especially on key suppliers", Davor Spoljara said in response to a SeeNews inquiry.
Agrokor's financial issues became apparent earlier this year when Moody's downgraded it's corporate family rating (CFR) to B3 from B2. The company then pulled out of a syndicated loan deal it had struck with several international lenders, which sent the price of its bonds on international markets into a downward spiral.
Since then, there has been talk of Russian banks, including Sberbank, acquiring a stake in the company and launching an overhaul. Agrokor has neither denied nor confirmed the reports, but it has announced it is working on a new business model to save the company.
(1 euro = 7.43505 kuna)