As 2025 came to a close, it provided a timely opportunity to review the key developments across regional equity markets. One trend stands out clearly: a sustained and exceptional expansion in equity turnover on both the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) and the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE), underlining the region’s improving liquidity and investor engagement, with ZSE total equity turnover rising 97.2% YoY to EUR 813.2m and LJSE total equity turnover increasing 65.9% YoY to EUR 805.5m.
This growth unfolded against a turbulent global situation. Throughout the year, investors navigated shifting trade dynamics, persistent geopolitical tensions, and meaningful changes in monetary and fiscal policies. Despite the volatility, regional markets demonstrated notable resilience, turning sharp market swings into tailwinds and outperforming major global benchmarks, including the S&P 500, NASDAQ, and STOXX indices.
A pivotal development for the Zagreb Stock Exchange in 2025 was the addition of three new listings, ING-GRAD, Žito, and Tokić, which added fresh market depth and supported overall liquidity. Just as importantly, these IPOs reflected improving investor sentiment and a growing willingness among local companies to take their first step into capital markets, a trend we hope continues into 2026.
Now to the main theme: for investors, fund managers, analysts, etc., fundamentals always come first, but liquidity is often the deciding factor when it comes to actually “going in.” And as we will show in the next part of this text, with the turnover data, both exchanges sent a clear message to the market: “You can step in.”
On the ZSE in 2025, total equity turnover reached EUR 813.2m, up 97.2% YoY, a sharp acceleration compared with 2024 when turnover grew by a more modest 28.5% YoY, confirming a materially stronger trading environment and a clear step up in market activity. This figure includes equity continuous trading, equity block trades, and ETFs. Stock turnover amounted to EUR 518.1m, up 75.7% YoY, while equity block turnover surged 170% YoY to EUR 247.2m, continuing a long-standing trend on the domestic market where a meaningful share of activity is increasingly executed through negotiated institutional trades rather than purely through order-book liquidity. ETF turnover also became more visible, rising to EUR 47.9m, up 84.6% YoY, further supporting the narrative of gradually broadening market participation and instrument depth.
InterCapital Securities remained the leading broker across key segments, executing 29% of total equity turnover and 82% of ETF turnover in 2025, while also ranking first in bonds with a 32% market share, maintaining its position at the top of the league table. When debt block turnover, bonds, and money market instruments are included, total ZSE turnover amounted to EUR 865.8m, up 88.5% YoY from EUR 459.4m in 2024, confirming that the improvement in activity was not isolated to equities but visible across the market as a whole.
Monthly equity turnover on ZSE (FY 2025 vs FY 2024, EURm)
Source: ZSE, InterCapital Research
Beyond value turnover, trading intensity also improved: stock volumes and the number of stock trades rose 32% and 52.6%, respectively, while in the ETF segment volumes increased 19.5% and the number of trades climbed 40.3%, pointing to stronger retail and institutional engagement rather than only isolated large tickets. Over the same period, the combined market capitalization of equities and ETFs increased 11.2% YoY, providing a supportive backdrop for both turnover expansion and index performance.
As expected, Končar d.d. dominated trading activity with staggering EUR 149m of turnover, representing around 28.5% of total equity turnover, a major shift compared with 2024 when Hrvatski Telekom was the most traded stock with EUR 31.8m (with Končar also close behind at EUR 31.6m), implying a 368.5% jump in turnover for the most traded name. Končar was followed by Končar D&ST regular shares (EUR 35.4m), Hrvatski Telekom (EUR 34.8m), preferred shares of Končar D&ST (EUR 27.4m), and preferred shares of Adris Grupa (EUR 27.2m). ING-GRAD ranked just behind Adris with EUR 26.8m of turnover, which is particularly notable given the stock debuted only in March. Collectively, the five most traded names generated just over half of total stock turnover, while the top ten accounted for roughly three-quarters.
Blue-chip performance in 2025 was broadly positive and supported index gains. Končar D&ST regular shares were the strongest performer, rising 92.8% and leading CROBEX10 performance, followed by Končar Group up 57.7%. Other notable gainers included preferred shares of Adris Grupa up 39.3%, Valamar up 24.1%, and ING-GRAD up 13.4%. More modest single-digit gains were recorded by Ericsson NT (+3.54%), Hrvatski Telekom (+3.23%), HT (+6.7%), and Podravka (+1.01%), while HPB declined 1.26% and Atlantic Grupa fell 4.49%. Overall, these moves contributed to a 22.9% increase in the CROBEX10 index over the year.
Performance of CROBEX10 constituents (FY 2025, %)
Source: Bloomberg, InterCapital Research
On the Ljubljana Stock Exchange in 2025, total equity turnover reached EUR 805.5m, up 65.9% YoY, confirming a materially stronger trading environment compared with 2024 when total equity turnover amounted to EUR 485.7m. This figure combines equity order book turnover, ETF trading, and equity block turnover, mirroring the methodology used for the Zagreb Stock Exchange. Within that total, order book equity trading remained the dominant component at EUR 722.7m, up 55.5% YoY, while stock turnover alone reached EUR 686.8m, up 54.6% YoY. Equity block turnover saw a particularly strong acceleration, rising 174.6% YoY to EUR 111.9m. ETF turnover became materially more visible on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange in 2025, surging 1,065% YoY to EUR 6.8m, confirming that ETFs are emerging as an increasingly relevant liquidity and market access.
Beyond turnover value, trading intensity improved as well. Stock volumes rose 3.6% YoY to 7m shares, while the number of stock trades climbed 46.1% YoY , signalling that the market was supported not only by a few large tickets but also by wider participation and a higher transaction count. Market capitalization dynamics were also supportive, with stock market cap rising 47.9% YoY to EUR 17.6bn.
InterCapital Securities maintained a leading position in Slovenia’s secondary market activity, brokering 31.0% of stock turnover and 51% of ETF turnover in 2025. On an overall basis it amounts to a 30.1% total market share of turnover, confirming its continued dominance across segments and underlining its role as the key liquidity provider in the Slovenian market.
Monthly equity turnover on LJSE (FY 2025 vs FY 2024, EURm)
Source: LJSE, InterCapital Research
Trading activity remained concentrated in the largest and most institutionally relevant issuers. Krka led the market by a wide margin with a turnover of EUR 320.6m, representing 47% of total turnover. It is followed by NLB with EUR 157.1m, while Zavarovalnica Triglav generated EUR 57.6m and Petrol EUR 48.7m. Sava Re followed with EUR 45.4m, while the next names were Luka Koper (EUR 19.2m), Cinkarna Celje (EUR 17.7m), Telekom Slovenije (EUR 13.5m), Salus (EUR 5.4m) and Equinox (EUR 0.6m). The takeaway is clear: liquidity is improving strongly at the headline level, but it remains structurally concentrated in the top names, meaning that broader market depth outside the leaders is still less robust despite the strong YoY growth in turnover. The top 3 stocks with the highest turnover represents 78% of the market turnover, and the top 10 represents 99.86%.
Performance of SBITOP constituents in 2025 was broadly positive and supportive for investor sentiment, led by Luka Koper, which surged 80.0%, followed by strong gains in Sava Re (+66.3%) and Petrol (+63.8%), while Zavarovalnica Triglav (+46.2%) and Krka (+46.0%) also delivered robust returns; NLB advanced 43.1%, Telekom Slovenije rose 18.3%, and Cinkarna Celje (+13.7%) and Equinox (+13.3%) rounded out the list with solid double-digit gains, confirming that the rally was not limited to a single heavyweight but relatively well distributed across the index. Overall, this broad-based strength translated into a 50.33% increase in the SBITOP index in 2025, confirming the strong fundamentals of the Slovenian blue-chip companies, putting the 7SLO ETF in fourth position in the world, per Bloomberg.
Performance of SBITOP constituents (FY 2025, %)
Source: Bloomberg, InterCapital Research
Overall, 2025 proved both dynamic and rewarding for investors across regional capital markets. Despite global volatility, turnover across stocks, blocks, and ETFs expanded sharply, reflecting stronger investor participation, improving liquidity, and the continued maturation of market structure, supported in Croatia by the positive momentum from new listings on the ZSE. Importantly, both markets delivered returns that outpaced many larger developed benchmarks, strengthening the case for regional diversification. At InterCapital, we take pride in our role as the leading broker and market maker across both Croatia and Slovenia, as well as the sole ETF provider in the region, and we congratulate all investors who captured the upside of this strong and successful year.