Bosnian Stocks Drift Lower as Sarajevo Investors Shun Funds

“It can definitely be confirmed this week that investor interest [in Sarajevo] has weakened, especially in investment fund stocks. Investors have been withdrawing from funds and moving on to companies that are stable,” Predrag Mladjen of the Sarajevo-based brokerage Hypo Vrijednosnice told SeeNews.

“Interest in telecoms and energy companies is a little bit higher, but this trend has been in progress for a month already,” he added.

The SASX-10 index, tracking the 10 blue chips on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange (SASE), Bosnia’s bigger bourse, lost 7.10% to 1,229.73 points.

”Turnover has been a bit higher, but it is normal for December, just before the close of the financial year,” Mladjen said.

Weekly turnover rose to 3.80 million marka ($2.46 million/1.94 million euro) from 2.35 million marka last week, the bourse said in its weekly trading report.

Commercial bank IKB Zenica posted the highest weekly turnover of 654,780.10 marka on the SASE. Its shares traded at an average weighted price of 113.00 marka on Friday, up from 112.00 marka a week ago.

IKB Zenica was also the best performer in the SASX-10. The weakest performer in the index was Austrian-owned bank ABS Banka, which lost 18.54% from last Friday to an average of 233.86 marka.

SASE’s index tracking investment funds, the BIFX, fell 6.38% from last Friday to 2,251.12 points.

“I don’t expect the situation to improve until the end of the year,” Mladjen said.

Turnover on the Banja Luka Stock Exchange (BLSE) fell to 1.52 million marka this week from 1.81 million marka last week. The main indices continued to drift lower.

The BLSE benchmark BIRS index fell 2.48% from last Friday to 1,042.03 points. The BLSE investment fund index FIRS dropped by a weekly 4.99% to 1,730.99 points.

Hidroelektrane na Drini was the most traded stock on the BLSE's official market with a turnover of 940,663.56 marka and an average weighted price of 0.33 marka on Friday, down 0.30% from a week ago.

Zepter Fond had the highest turnover of 32,940.01 marka among investment funds this week, with an average weighted price of 3.47 marka on Friday, down 12.15% from a week earlier.

The most liquid stock on the BLSE free market was that of oil refinery Bosanski Brod, which last week officially restarted operations after Russian state oil firm Zarubezhneft bought it from the government of Bosnia’s Serb Republic last year. Turnover in Brod was 65,947.54 marka, going down by a weekly 15.26% on Friday to 0.31 marka.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bosnian marka)