January 12 (SeeNews) - Both share indices of the Belgrade Stock Exchange posted double-digit gains in 2016, with the blue-chip BELEX15 increasing 11.38% on the back of macroeconomic stability demonstrated by significant improvement of most major indicators, a local broker told SeeNews.
"The GDP growth of 2.7% and the successful fiscal consolidation prompted investors to show some interest in the Serbian market," the head of strategy and market research department at Eurobank Beograd, Ivan Radovic, said in an e-mailed statement earlier this week.
Serbia's central bank, NBS, said in November it expects the country's GDP to grow by 2.7% in 2016 due to the better-than-expected performance of the agriculture sector.
The World Bank said earlier this week that Serbia's 2016 GDP growth rate is estimated at 2.5%, up 0.7 percentage point compared to the bank's previous forecast made in June.
The BELEX15 index of the Belgrade bourse closed the year at 717.37 points, after hitting 725.63 on December 13, its highest level since May 18, 2015. The index erased the 3.44% loss booked in 2015, but still stood below the historical high of 746.63 recorded on April 16, 2015.
The broader BELEXline, a free‐float market capitalisation weighted index, closed 2016 13.69% higher at 1,569.43 points after adding 2.65% in 2015. It reached a historical high of 1,589.21 on December 13.
On the negative side, the Belgrade stock exchange saw the departure of a couple of major companies, such as AIK Banka and dairy company Imlek, "which routinely contributed one-third of the volumes," Radovic said.
In July, MK Group, the majority owner of AIK Banka purchased the shares held by minority shareholders and delisted the bank from the stock exchange. Imlek, in turn, delisted from the stock exchange in August following a squeeze-out by its majority shareholder, Dutch-based Danube Food Group.
The share trading turnover generated by the BELEX15 components decreased by more than half last year, falling to 4.458 billion dinars ($38.3 million/36 million euro). The figure represents 69% of the total 6.465 billion dinars stock trading turnover in Belgrade last year. In 2015, the combined trading turnover generated by the BELEX15 members totalled 10.446 billion dinars.
A positive factor in 2016 was the listing of sovereign bonds and notes, which "brought some media light to the Belex, and stocks became an indirect beneficiary," Radovic pointed out.
Trading in Treasury bonds contributed 38.109 billion dinars to the bourse total trading turnover of 44.574 billion dinars in 2016. In the previous year, the total trading turnover on the Belgrade bourse came in at 22.429 billion dinars, as trading in Treasury bonds contributed only 5.323 billion dinars, bourse data showed.
In 2016, oil and gas group NIS [BEL:NIIS] and civil engineering group Energoprojekt (BEL:ENHL) generated the highest trading turnover among the blue chips, of 982.4 million dinars and 843.5 million dinars, respectively. The combined trading turnover of the two companies accounted for nearly a quarter of Belgrade bourse's total last year.
Messer Tehnogas [BEL:TGAS] was the top blue-chip gainer, as the company shares closed 49.49% higher year-on-year at 13,006 dinars on December 30 in the last trading session in 2016.
Energoprojekt came in second with a 37.99% rise in share price to 1,431 dinars. NIS was third, with shares closing 23.33% higher at 740 dinars.
Cookware maker Metalac [BEL:MTLC] paced the blue-chip decliners. Its shares fell 31.18% last year, closing at 1,686 dinars.
Total market capitalisation came in at 592.443 billion dinars at the end of 2016. The market capitalisation of BELEX15 members was 245.852 billion dinars.
(1 euro = 123.793 dinars)
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