BELGRADE (Serbia), October 13 (SeeNews) – Turnover on the Belgrade Stock Exchange, BELEX, fell 70.7% on the year to 189.4 million euro ($281.1 million) through September, BELEX Director Gordana Dostanic said on Tuesday.
In the third quarter alone, volumes fell 61.9%, indicating that the contraction trend is abating, Dostanic told a news conference.
Even if the contraction continues to slow, the stock exchange will not be able to match last year’s trading volume, she added.
The BELEX turnover more than halved to about 60 billion dinars ($957.7 million/645.3 million euro) in 2008.
Equities accounted for 63.1% of the total turnover through September while government bonds comprised 13.1%, Dostanic said. Trading on the over-the-counter market generated 23.8% of total turnover over the review period.
Monthly turnover peaked at 2.59 billion dinars in February while July marked a year-to-date low of 1.17 billion dinars, Dostanic added.
Belgrade-based blue-chip lender Agrobanka posted the biggest gains through September, soaring more than 150%. Its shares rose 1.65% to 11,345 dinars on Monday.
Seed producer Agrocoop, based in the town of Novi Sad in the northern province of Vojvodina, was the biggest loser during the review period, tumbling 59.1%. Its shares last traded on October 5, gaining 19.67% to 365 dinars.
Blue-chip lender AIK Banka, based in the town of Nis, in southern Serbia, was the most traded company during the first nine months of 2009. Its total turnover totalled 2.6 billion dinars. AIK Banka slid 0.4% to 3,005 dinars in Monday session’s highest volume of 29.1 million dinars.
Dostanic also said that the Vienna Bourse, which owns the Ljubljana, Budapest and Prague stock exchanges, is still eying the BELEX but that there have been no concrete talks at management level. According to Dostanic, the Vienna bourse first indicated its interest a couple of years ago but plans have been sidetracked by the crisis.
The blue-chip BELEX15 index of the Belgrade bourse shed 0.62% to 814.85 points on Monday after losing 1.07% on Friday. The broader BELEXline index slid 0.39% to 1,545.82 points on Monday after edging down 0.23% on Friday.
(1 euro=92.9798 Serbian dinars)
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