Serbian Stocks Rise in Falling Turnover

The blue-chip BELEX15 index closed up 1.37% at 554.96 points after climbing 1.11% on Friday. It has lost some 75% since the beginning of the year due to increased risk aversion among investors fuelled by the global financial crisis.

The composite BELEXline index rose 0.48% to 1,192.29 points, while the joint SRX index of the bourses in Belgrade and Vienna was up 3.07% to 275.66.

“The biggest problem on our market is the low turnout of foreign investors. They had only 13% on the buy side and 40% on the sell side today – and this small percentage reflects in decreased turnover,” a local broker told SeeNews. “The volumes could at least double if they regain their 50%-share on the buy side.”

“But judging from the situation on other bourses, investors will need a fair amount of time to start confidently buying on foreign markets again,” the broker said.

Total BELEX turnover dropped to some 59 million dinars ($887,600/ 687,900 euro) from 80 million dinars on Friday.

Construction firm Napred closed unchanged at 3,000 dinars in 12.35 million dinars of turnover, the highest for the day. Blue chip Agrobanka rose 0.68% to 4,001 dinars in 8.97 million dinars of turnover, second highest.

Losers outnumbered gainers narrowly on Monday 21 to 17 as 38 shares closed unchanged.

(1 euro = 85.7635 dinars)