Belgrade Indices Fall Further in Lower Volumes

“The trading volume is thinning compared to last week, which was expected. A huge part of the demand now comes from domestic investors and these sources are very limited,” Uros Spasenovic, a broker with Belgrade Independent brokerage, told SeeNews, adding that the sellers are mainly foreign investors.

“The market is now stabilising and I don’t expect any sharp movements up or down,” he said. “What will happen depends also on events on the global markets as this will have more of a psychological effect.”

The blue-chip BELEX15 index fell 2.02% to 793.20 points on Thursday, following a 1.84% drop on Wednesday. BELEX15 has lost over 65% since the beginning of the year.

The composite BELEXline index on Thursday lost 1.32%, reaching 1,596.08 points, after sliding 1.27% on Wednesday. The joint SRX index of the bourses in Belgrade and Vienna plunged 5.63% to 397.72.

Total turnover on the BELEX dropped to 102 million dinars ($1.6 million/1.2 million euro) from 140 million dinars on Wednesday.

“On the other hand, in Serbia there is some caution and a fear of a slowdown in economic growth, of the banks' liquidity, regardless of the fact that our banks were barred by law from investing abroad,” the broker said. “Besides, the central bank has been pursuing a very restrictive policy and all the banks have big reserves, so I think at the moment they are not in any danger.”

Serbia’s central bank said earlier this month the country’s banks are safe and sound, rejecting media reports suggesting a collapse of the banking system. It added household deposits have a 28% share in the banking sector's total liabilities, while the funds the banks hold with the central bank account for 34% of the total.

Blue chip Komercijalna Banka shed 3.59% to 34,008 dinars in 16 million dinars of turnover, the highest on Thursday. Blue-chip cookware manufacturer Metalac closed down 8.80% at 2,279 dinars in 15 million dinars of turnover, the second highest for the day.

(1 euro = 82.5406 dinars)