BELGRADE (Serbia), February 6 (SeeNews) – The slump on Wall Street is expected to have a limited effect on the Belgrade Stock Exchange, as just a couple of listed shares contribute most weight to its main index and liquidity, an Erste Group analyst told SeeNews on Tuesday.
The BELEX15 blue-chip index of the Belgrade Stock Exchange was up 0.24% to 776.91 points as at 13:30 CET on Tuesday.
Oil and gas group NIS [BEL:NIIS] and Belgrade airport operator Aerodrom Nikola Tesla [BEL:AERO] have a combined weight of some 40% in the BELEX15, which tracks the most liquid 11 shares on the Belgrade Stock Exchange, according to bourse data.
"It is difficult to hide anywhere from the ongoing sell-off, not even on the frontier markets. I expect that ripples from the developed markets might filter through local exchanges but these effects will be very limited," Mladen Dodig, head of research for Serbia and Croatia at Erste Group, said in response to a SeeNews enquiry.
For most of the shares listed on the Belgrade Stock Exchange, any weakness in prices is seen as a good entry opportunity, Dodig added.
"I also expect the ongoing sell-off in global markets would fade by the end of the week, making the potential effect on the local market even smaller."
On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial stock market index plunged by 1,175 points, or 4.6%, the largest percentage drop since 2011, as concerns of higher interest rates sparked a sell-off. Wall Street's record-breaking loss caused panic on Asian markets on Tuesday, as Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell by 5.12%, Shanghai Composite Index lost 3.35% and Japan's Nikkei closed 4.7% down.