SKOPJE (Macedonia), September 10 (SeeNews) – The Macedonian Stock Exchange (MSE) on Monday took Makedonska Banka, which is undergoing restructuring, off its broader share index, MBID, for an indefinite period of time, the bourse said.
"Aiming to avert excessive changes in the value of the MBID index that are not triggered by changes in market trends, the MSE decided to exclude Makedonska banka's shares from the index," the MSE said in a statement.
September 10 is the first day in which the MBID will be calculated without considering the price of the shares of Makedonska Banka, the MSE said. The exclusion of Makedonska Banka leaves 14 stocks in the MBID.
Officials from the bank and the bourse were not immediately available to provide further details.
MBID, which was introduced in June, includes the 15 biggest companies by market turnover for a six-month period. It measured 10,000 points at the start and on Monday it closed at 22,137 points, 113.37% up from 11,374 Friday, according to the latest data available from the MSE.
"The MBID wil be recalculated tomorrow,excluding the price of the stocks of Makedonska Banka," Lenin Prculovski, Sileks Brokerage CEO told SeeNews.
Makedonska Banka shares closed at 18,000 ($400.6/290.1 euro) denars on Monday, up 1,700% from Friday.
Serbian businessman Jovica Stefanovic-Nini bought Makedonska Banka in 2003, when the bank was on a World Bank list of insolvent banks that the Macedonian government had either to heal or close down.
Makedonska Banka (www.makbanka.com.mk) lost its licence to carry out foreign transactions and perform services abroad as its capital has fallen below the required minimum of nine million euro ($10.6 million) as of early July 2006.
At the end of March, it ranked fourth in terms of assets among the nine small banks operating in Macedonia, a southeast European country of nearly two million people. At the moment 19 banks operate in Macedonia, of which the country's central bank ranks nine as small, or having assets lower than 18.5 million denars each.
France's biggest retail bank Credit Agricole said in December last year that it planned to acquire 70% of the Macedonian bank but no deal has been reported so far.
($ = 0.7241 euro)