Slovenian Stock Indices Fall Slightly in Pre-Holiday Mood

The blue-chip SBITOP index of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) shed 0.2% to 898.32 points and the broader 15-share SBI20 index fell 0.3% to 3,880.41.

“People are more or less in holiday mood already. Liquidity is extremely low,” the head of the brokerage department of local Abanka Vipa, Tomislav Apollonio, told SeeNews.

Apollonio expects low liquidity to persist and share prices to hover around their current levels in the next few days.

LJSE's total turnover doubled to 3.23 million euro ($4.6 million) on Wednesday from 1.6 million euro on Tuesday, but the bond market contributed 1.86 million euro to the total turnover.

Household appliance manufacturer Gorenje was the top blue-chip gainer on Wednesday, rising 3.52% to an average price of 11.47 euro. The company suffered steep falls last week after it warned investors net profit in 2008 could fall up to a third short of initial estimates.

“Maybe the market overreacted to the news […] Buyers started showing up at these levels,” Apollonio said.

Telekom Slovenije was the biggest decliner among the 10 blue chips, falling 1.23% to 136.80 euro.

As usual, shares in drug maker Krka were the most traded. They added 0.15% to 53.67 euro on some 394,000 euro of turnover.

Blue-chip losers outnumbered gainers by seven to three.

($ = 0.7061 euro)