Bosnia’s Two Bourses To Launch Joint Index by Mid-2009

“We expect that the joint index of the Banja Luka (BLSE) and Sarajevo Stock Exchanges (SASE) will be created in the first half of the next year. Its aim is to raise the visibility of the Bosnian capital markets internationally and attract foreign investors,” BLSE director Milan Bozic said in a statement posted on the bourse’s website late on Thursday.

“This may be an important step for utilisation of the growth potential of the country and its economy", Hannes Takacs, team leader of the project, said in the statement

The project also aims to enhance the transparency of the Bosnian capital markets, develop structured financial products and derivatives and contribute to the improvement of corporate governance of companies.

It will be implemented in the next few months in partnership with the Wiener Borse Consortium, comprising the Vienna Stock Exchange and Vienna-based consultancy CAPMEX, and will be supported by the World Bank, the statement said.

Currently SASE, Bosnia’s bigger bourse, has a blue-chip index (SASX-10) and an investment fund index (BIFX). BLSE’s main indices are the benchmark BIRS company index and the FIRS investment fund index. It also has four sectoral indices.