Serbian Stocks Close Higher But Fresh Falls Lie Ahead

“We had a strong start today, similar to the previous two days but it didn’t last long,” Uros Spasenovic, a broker with Belgrade Independent brokerage, told SeeNews.

The blue-chip BELEX15 index closed 2.93% higher at 867.82 points on Wednesday, extending its rally of 12.79% on Tuesday and 3.05% on Monday. By these gains the index has erased part of the steep plunge of 25.63% it made last week. It has shed over 60% since the beginning of the year.

The composite BELEXline index on Wednesday added a further 1.77%, reaching 1,700.71 points after a 7.58% rise on Tuesday. The joint SRX index of the bourses in Belgrade and Vienna slipped 0.37% to 445.48 after soaring 16.23% a day earlier.

“The situation will worsen as the focus of the financial system now moves to the real economy and everyone expects a recession. So I believe in the coming days we won’t continue with these rises,” Spasenovic said.

Total turnover on the BELEX rose to 495 million dinars ($8.1 million/6.0 million euro) from 257 million dinars on Tuesday.

“The encouraging thing in the past days, even more encouraging than the price rise, are the increased volumes,” Spasenovic added. “However, it is noticeable that the sellers are predominantly foreign funds, while the buyers are local investors.”

The broker said the foreign funds probably continue to be in the need for cash and are ready to sell significant amount of shares irrespective of the price. “They are just interested in the cash, the price does not matter.”

Agriculture firm Topola closed unchanged to 6,082 dinars, posting the highest turnover for Wednesday, of 182 million dinars, in just one transaction.

Blue-chip soybean producer Sojaprotein Becej rose 0.93% to 977 dinars in 61.5 million dinars of turnover, second highest for the day.

(1 euro = 82.9225 dinars)