November 19 (SeeNews) - Croatian share indices fell further on Monday, reflecting bearish mood on global markets and pressured by widespread selling by inexperienced domestic retail investors scared by the recent slide of share prices in Zagreb and political uncertainty ahead of Croatia's general election, traders said.
Turnover in shares and bonds in floor trading augmented to 153.5 million kuna ($30.6 million/20.9 million euro), from 106.7 million kuna on Friday.
The 30-share Crobex benchmark of the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) shed 3.51% to 4,574.1 points, after falling by some three percent on Friday. The index has been falling for almost one month after it hit an all-time high in mid-October.
“Foreign markets fell too, with Footsie down some 2.0%. Why should be the Crobex an exemption? Moreover, there is a high number of new shareholders on our market who have started to panic,” Groan Vorkapic, investment advisor with financial consultancy To-One, told SeeNews. “We don’t expect further significant falls. For sure, we'll be cleverer after the elections,” Vorkapic said. Croatia will hold parliamentary elections on November 25.
The Croemi 20-share index calculated by commercial bank Raiffeisenbank Austria mirrored the Crobex, falling 3.48% to 3,743.16points. Each of the indices has brought investors around 40% gain since the beginning of the year.
The narrowest CROX index of the seven most traded stocks on the ZSE, which the Vienna Stock Exchange launched this summer, peeled 3.10% to end at 2,439.63 points in euro terms.
Shares in index heavyweight INA dipped 0.16% to 2,546 kuna on relatively low 3.3 million kuna of turnover.
Among the other blue-chips, construction shares INGRA, IGH and Dalekovod lost 5.48%, 7.28%, and 9.19% respectively; tobacco and tourism company Adris retreated 2.08%; shipping company Atlantska Plovidba shed 6.45%; telecoms equipment producer Ericsson Nikola Tesla fell 3.45% and electrical equipment maker Koncar dropped 4.81%, all in solid turnovers.
Shares of the new star on the bourse, telecom T-HT’s again attracted the biggest daily turnover, 25.7 million kuna. It finished 3.94% lower, at 330 kuna which is its lowest closing price since its shares were floated in early October.
Shares of fast moving consumer goods distributor Atlantic Grupa started trading on the Zagreb bourse on Monday. Intraday it was traded in a range from 965 kuna to 831 and ended at 935 kuna, equal to its price in the initial public offering (IPO), on a turnover of 14.9 million kuna.
The intraday fall makes Atlantic Grupa the singe Croatian share that at its bourse debut this year has marked a loss for part of its investors. In the context of falling market it was hard to expect that its share price will rise on the debut and moreover, the price set in the IPO had been high in view of the company valuations, Vorkapic added.
Overall, decliners beat gainers by 116 to 16 and 19 shares were unchanged.
The fixed-income Crobis index was 97.3478, down 0.02%.
(1 euro=7.3407 Croatian kuna)