Slovenian Shares Lose Ground, Track Falls Abroad

The blue-chip SBITOP index of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) lost 2.52% to 1,171.52 points and the broader 15-share SBI20 index fell 2.38% to 5,145.96. The Slovenian indices had registered gains in the previous few days.

The markets in Europe and elsewhere moved lower today and it was the same in Slovenia, Jure Vrhunec, a broker with Maribor-based Raiffeisen Banka, told SeeNews.

Vrhunec said the negative trend in Europe will probably drag the LJSE further down on Friday. “The turnover [on the LJSE] is very low. The liquidity is not high either,” he added.

LJSE's total turnover fell to 2.99 million euro ($3.9 million) on Thursday from 4.78 million euro on Wednesday.

Blue-chip food retailer Mercator lost 3.01% to an average price of 207.11 euro on Thursday, after surging some 12% the previous day on news that Slovenian brewer Pivovarna Lasko and its biggest shareholder, Infond Holding, plan to sell their combined stake of around 48% in Mercator in a tender by the end of March.

“The news was not big enough to propel the price higher," Vrhunec said, adding it was unclear if the deal would happen at all.

Each of the 10 blue chips lost value on Thursday. The country’s second largest bank by assets, Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor, was the biggest loser among them, falling 4.93% to 14.28 euro.

Another blue chip, drug maker Krka, lost 3.07% to 66.37 euro in the day’s highest turnover of 1.19 million euro.

($ = 0.7754 euro)