Croatia's Kras boosts turnover on ZSE, share indices fall

Kras closed 0.95% higher at 1,060 kuna in a turnover of 2 million kuna, data posted on the ZSE's website showed.

Trading in Kras has picked up following last month's announcement of a planned buyout bid by the company's largest single shareholder, meat producer Braca Pivac. Prior to the announcement, Kras traded at below 400 kuna.

On Wednesday, Braca Pivac launched a buyout bid for the remaining 69.27% in Kras it does not yet own at 430 kuna per share.

The ZSE's share indices fell on Friday, as shipbuilding company Viktor Lenac [ZSE:VLEN] led the blue-chip losers, ZSE data showed.

Viktor Lenac's shares closed at 7.90 kuna, down 4.24%.

Diversified holding Djuro Djakovic [ZSE:DDHJ] led the blue-chip gainers, closing 8.45% higher at 5.26 kuna.

The company's shares have been sliding сх the last few trading days. On Thursday, its shares lost 1.02% to 4.85 kuna.

On Wednesday, Djuro Djakovic said it was in talks with creditors for resolving its current liquidity crisis which has left it short of funds to pay September salaries to employees.

Earlier on Thursday, some 600 of Djuro Djakovic's employees launched a strike, demanding payment of their September wages and the resignation of the management board director.

Hrvatski Telekom [ZSE:HT] contributed the biggest portion of trading turnover among the blue-chip companies on Friday, of 689,578 kuna. The company's shares closed down 0.59% at 169.5 kuna.

The ZSE's total trading turnover fell to 6.2 million kuna ($924,550/833,500 euro), from 7.6 million kuna on Thursday.

The 25-share benchmark CROBEX index fell by 0.41% to 2,012.55 after rising 0.18% in the previous trading session.

The narrower of the ZSE's two blue-chip indices, the CROBEX10, which tracks the leading companies in terms of free float, market capitalisation and liquidity, decreased by 0.49% to 1,186.60 after losing 0.29% on Thursday.

The fixed-income CROBIS index edged down 0.03% to 116.8130.

(1 euro = 7.45190 kuna)