Slovenian Stock Indices Rebound in Thin Turnover

The blue-chip SBITOP index of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) gained 2.53% to 906.67 points and the broader 15-share SBI20 index rose 2.1% to 3,888.27 points on Friday.

“Turnover was very low […] Investors are waiting for the companies' 2008 financial results,” Darko Kovacic, an analyst at Maribor-based Raiffeisen Banka, told SeeNews.

Total turnover on the LJSE fell to 1.38 million euro ($1.8 million) on Friday from 1.86 million euro on Thursday. The LJSE has been dogged by weak turnover recently as cautious investors are waiting to see what course the local economy will take amid the global economic slowdown, market analysts have said.

Kovacic said that investors are also waiting to see how the situation with local energy-to-tourism holding company Istrabenz will shape up. Istrabenz said on Friday it has offered its creditors to form a creditor's committee. It expected to finish by March an assessment of its financial situation which would allow it to "bridge the financial crisis and set the conditions for the financial consolidation of the holding company and its future development," the company said in a statement.

Istrabenz also said it was in talks with local fuel trader Petrol on a possible merger of the energy divisions of the two companies.

Shares in Istrabenz, part of the SBI20 index, fell 0.79% to an average price of 22.59 euro on Friday. The company released its statement after the end of trading.

There were no losers among the 10 blue chips on Friday with drug maker Krka as the top gainer. It rose 3.97% to an average price of 53.49 euro on the day’s highest turnover of 563,000 euro.

In terms of gains Krka was followed by Petrol, which was up 2.93% to 275.50 euro on some 61,000 euro of turnover.

A slide in share prices dragged down the total turnover and market capitalisation of the LJSE last year, the bourse said on Thursday. Total turnover fell by 42.3% to 1.286 billion euro in 2008 and the market capitalisation of shares, investment funds excluded, slumped by 57.1% to 8.468 billion euro at the end of December.

The SBI20 index slipped by 67.49% and the SBITOP index lost 66.09% in 2008. The two indices have clawed back some 5.0-6.0% of their value so far this year amid weak turnover.

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