Bosnian Stocks End Week Lower, Turnovers Rise

The SASX-10 index of the Sarajevo Stock Exchange, SASE, which tracks the bourse's 10 blue chips, closed at 1,028.01 points on Friday, 2.30% down from a week ago.

The SASX-30 index, which comprises the 30 most liquid stocks on SASE, on Friday was 1.60% down from a week earlier at 1,081.69. SASE's index tracking investment funds, the BIFX, fell 1.76% to 1,796.46 points this week.

Blue-chip drug firm Bosnalijek posted the highest turnover of 640,286 marka on SASE's official market this week. Its stock was traded at an average price of 15.50 marka ($11/7.9 euro) on Friday, down from 16.46 marka a week ago.

SASE's total turnover almost doubled to 10.2 million marka this week from 5.6 million marka last week.

SASE is based in the Muslim-Croat Federation, one of Bosnia's two autonomous parts. The other one is the Serb Republic, where the Banja Luka Stock Exchange (BLSE) is based.

The turnover on BLSE, Bosnia's smaller bourse, rose to almost 12 million marka this week from 4.6 million marka last week.

The benchmark BIRS index of the BLSE ended at 983.62 points on Friday, down 1.63% from a week earlier. The BLSE investment funds index, FIRS, fell 0.64% to 1,811.34 this week.

The most liquid stock on BLSE's official market was lender Bijeljina–based farming company Semberija, which was traded in turnover of 679,696 marka this week. Its shares closed at an average weighted price of 0.40 marka on Friday, down 5.44% from a week ago.

Among the investment funds traded on the BLSE, ZIF Invest Nova Fond posted the highest turnover of 58,584 marka this week. The stock's average weighted price was 0.06 marka on Friday, unchanged from last week.

(1 euro=1.95583 Bosnian marka)