Six months into 2026, the Zagreb Stock Exchange has already generated more turnover than in the whole of 2024. That single fact captures how quickly regional trading activity has been scaling up, and it is why we keep returning to this dataset. In this article, we review trading on the Zagreb and Ljubljana stock exchanges in H1 2026: how much was traded, through how many transactions, in which names, and what all of it says about the depth and development of the two markets.
When we reviewed the Q1 2026 numbers, both exchanges had already confirmed a continuation of the trend established during 2025, and the full H1 2026 data reinforces that picture, with activity expanding further through the second quarter. Our Q1 analysis can be found here.
On the ZSE in H1 2026, total equity turnover (stocks, ETFs, and equity block trades combined) reached EUR 495.4m, up 37.1% YoY. Looking at stocks alone, which remain the core of the market, turnover amounted to EUR 345.4m, up 48.1% YoY, generated through 74,259 transactions compared with 52,180 in H1 2025, an increase of 42.3%. What makes this combination particularly encouraging is that the average order book ticket did not shrink as the number of transactions surged; it actually rose to around EUR 4,650 from roughly EUR 4,470 a year earlier. In other words, more trades are being executed and each trade is, on average, slightly larger, which is exactly the combination one wants to see when assessing the development of a market. ETF turnover came in at EUR 39.0m, up 29.8% YoY, while equity block turnover reached EUR 110.9m, up 13.2% YoY, a notably calmer pace than the near-doubling recorded in Q1, indicating that order book trading did the heavy lifting in the second quarter. Including bonds and money market instruments, total ZSE turnover reached EUR 511.8m, up 31.6% YoY from EUR 389.0m in H1 2025, and above the EUR 459.4m recorded in the entire year 2024.
InterCapital Securities maintained its position at the top of the league table, ranking first in stocks with a 27.5% market share, first in ETFs with 77.9%, and first in bonds with a 32.4% share. Across all segments, the firm executed 31.5% of total ZSE turnover.
ZSE H1 Turnover segments (H1 2023-H1 2026, EURm)
Source: ZSE, InterCapital Research
Zooming in on trading intensity, stock volumes increased 12.2% YoY to 10.7m shares, while stock market capitalisation rose 16.1% YoY to EUR 35.5bn, meaning the ratio of turnover to market size improved as well, a straightforward sign of deepening liquidity. The ETF segment tells a similar story at a smaller scale: the number of ETF trades jumped 79.5% YoY to 3,403 and volumes rose 43.3%, supported in part by the May listing of 7POL, our new Polish equity ETF, which generated EUR 6.6m of turnover in its first weeks of trading. ETF market capitalisation increased 25.9% to EUR 174.7m.
ZSE H1 Stocks Trading Intensity (H1 2023-H1 2026)
Source: ZSE, InterCapital Research
The breakdown by market segment shows the same structural pattern observed in Q1, only more pronounced at the top. Activity on the Official Market doubled, with turnover up 100.4% YoY to EUR 184.3m and the number of trades up 83.0%. Prime Market turnover rose 24.0% YoY to EUR 71.8m, while Regular Market turnover increased 7.2% to EUR 89.4m.
The breakdown by market segment shows the same structural pattern observed in Q1, only more pronounced at the top. Activity on the Official Market doubled, with turnover up 100.4% YoY to EUR 184.3m and the number of trades up 83.0%. Prime Market turnover rose 24.0% YoY to EUR 71.8m, while Regular Market turnover increased 7.2% to EUR 89.4m.
KOEI (KONČAR Group regular shares) again dominated trading activity, with EUR 121.7m of turnover, representing roughly 35.2% of total stock turnover, up from 20.0% in H1 2025 (EUR 46.7m) and implying a 160.8% YoY increase for the most traded name. The story here goes beyond a single stock: investor interest extends across the whole KONČAR Group, and received an additional boost in April when the Group, including Dalekovod, signed a letter of intent to participate in the energy infrastructure segment of the announced Pantheon AI data centre project near Topusko. Dalekovod (EUR 22.7m), which held second place with turnover up 119.2% YoY, is the clearest example of that spillover, with trading interest in the name building steadily over the past year alongside the Group’s expanding project pipeline. Third-placed AD Plastik (EUR 20.0m, up 574.2% YoY) is a different kind of story: a name that has gradually become a retail favourite as its fundamental picture and balance sheet improved, continuing the recovery in trading interest we described in the Q1 blog. Behind these three, the list takes on a more familiar look, with the traditional liquidity staples of the Croatian market: Zagrebačka banka (EUR 18.6m, +10.8% YoY), Hrvatski Telekom (EUR 17.4m, –19.8% YoY), Valamar Riviera (EUR 16.7m, +17.6% YoY), Adris Grupa preferred (EUR 16.6m, +55.3% YoY), KONČAR D&ST preferred shares (EUR 13.2m, –17.9% YoY), KONČAR D&ST regular shares (EUR 12.5m, –27.0% YoY), and Podravka (EUR 9.5m, –7.6% YoY).
ING-GRAD, which ranked third in H1 2025 in the first months after its IPO, recorded EUR 7.8m of order book turnover this half, but the more relevant part of its story took place off the order book: the accelerated bookbuild (ABB) executed during the period generated EUR 10.1m of block turnover in the name, meaning ING-GRAD’s total trading activity actually exceeded last year’s level, with the composition simply shifting toward negotiated trades. The top 5 names accounted for around 58.0% of total stock turnover and the top 10 for roughly 77.8%, marginally above the 57.1% and 74.8% recorded in Q1 2026.
ZSE H1 Stock turnover by top traded names (H1 2023-H1 2026, EURm)
Source: ZSE, InterCapital Research
On the LJSE in H1 2026, total turnover (stocks, structured products, bonds, T-Bills and equity block trades) reached EUR 426.9m, up 9.5% YoY from EUR 389.9m in H1 2025. Stock turnover, the dominant component, amounted to EUR 359.7m, up 11.8% YoY, while structured products turnover more than doubled to EUR 10.4m (+117.4% YoY). Equity block turnover was broadly flat at EUR 46.2m (+1.5% YoY), confirming that order book trading remains the dominant channel on the Slovenian market.
InterCapital led the league table on LJSE as well, ranking first in stocks with a 28.5% market share and first in structured products with 62.3%, for a combined 28.6% share of total LJSE turnover.
LJSE H1 Turnover segments (H1 2023-H1 2026, EURm)
Source: LJSE, InterCapital Research
Where the LJSE stands out is trading intensity, and this half there is a very concrete story behind the numbers. The number of stock trades climbed 82.7% YoY to 53,769, nearly doubling for the second period in a row, while stock volumes rose 29.5%. The implied average order book ticket consequently moved down from around EUR 10,900 in H1 2025 to roughly EUR 6,700. A significant part of this shift can be traced to a single, highly unusual newcomer: Vzajemna (see below). Excluding it, the average ticket stands at around EUR 8,400, still lower YoY but far less dramatically so, indicating that a broader widening of the market’s retail base is underway as well. Supporting that broader trend is the rollout of individual investment accounts (INR) in Slovenia, a new state-introduced product launched in March 2026 that offers more favourable tax treatment for long-term investing and has been drawing new retail participants toward the exchange throughout the year. Combined with stock market capitalisation rising 35.7% YoY to EUR 21.7bn, the picture is one of a market whose base of participants is expanding quickly, even as its overall size grows.
LJSE H1 Stocks Trading Intensity (H1 2023-H1 2026)
Source: LJSE, InterCapital Research
By segment, the Prime Market remained the core of the exchange, with turnover up 7.7% YoY to EUR 344.1m and the number of trades up 42.0%. The Standard Market, however, is where the most unusual development of the half took place. Its turnover rose seven-fold to EUR 15.6m and the number of trades climbed from 638 to 12,877, and the bulk of that jump comes down to Vzajemna, whose arrival on the exchange is a story without precedent on the regional market. Slovenia’s largest health insurer was transformed from a mutual company into a joint-stock company by a special law adopted following the abolition of supplementary health insurance, and its listing in March 2026 was mandated by that same law rather than being a classic IPO.
Former policyholders became entitled to shares or cash payouts depending on the size of their entitlement, and as a result the company arrived on the LJSE with more than 444,000 shareholders, the most of any company in Slovenia. With that many first-time shareholders, many of them holding small stakes and encountering the stock market for the first time, the trading pattern was predictably retail-heavy: Vzajemna alone generated 11,242 trades in the period, over a fifth of all transactions on the exchange, at an average trade of only around EUR 300. Beyond the trading statistics, the listing has a broader significance: it has brought hundreds of thousands of people into direct contact with the capital market for the first time, and together with the INR rollout it may prove to be one of the more meaningful retail participation catalysts the Slovenian market has seen.
At the very top of the rankings, the only notable change is that NLB (NLBR) overtook Krka as the most traded stock on the LJSE, with EUR 114.3m of turnover, up 29.6% YoY, while Krka (KRKG) followed with EUR 108.9m, down 17.7% YoY, echoing the pattern of declining KRKG activity already visible in Q1. Beyond that swap in first place, the composition of the Slovenian market remains remarkably stable: the two heavyweights accounted for 31.8% and 30.3% of total stock turnover respectively, or 62.0% combined, down from 68.5% in H1 2025, a modest but welcome sign of activity broadening, and the rest of the list carries the usual names. Petrol (PETG) took third place at EUR 40.3m (+47.2% YoY), followed by Zavarovalnica Triglav (EUR 25.9m, –17.8% YoY), Sava Re (EUR 16.9m, broadly flat), Luka Koper (EUR 15.8m, +114.2% YoY), Telekom Slovenije (EUR 12.7m, +104.0% YoY), Salus (EUR 11.4m, up from EUR 1.2m a year earlier), and Cinkarna Celje (EUR 9.4m, flat YoY). The only genuine novelty is Vzajemna itself (EUR 3.5m), entering the top 10 in its very first months of trading. Collectively, the top 5 names accounted for around 85.1% of total stock turnover, while the top 10 effectively captured all order book activity, underscoring the still concentrated nature of liquidity on the Ljubljana market.
LJSE H1 Stock turnover by top traded names (H1 2023-H1 2026, EURm)
Source: LJSE, InterCapital Research
Looking at the four-year picture, H1 2026 arguably marks the point at which the growth story starts to look less like a burst and more like a maturing trend. In the earlier legs of this cycle, individual segments were posting triple-digit YoY jumps, equity blocks and ETFs on the ZSE among them, coming off low bases. This half, growth across the main segments settled into elevated but more sustainable double-digit territory, while the underlying quality of activity kept improving: on the ZSE, the average order book ticket has now increased for a third consecutive year, from around EUR 3,000 in H1 2023 to roughly EUR 4,650 today, and on the LJSE, the number of transactions has more than tripled over the same period, with the Vzajemna listing and the INR rollout adding a whole new layer of first-time retail participants. Concentration in a handful of large names remains a defining feature of regional liquidity, but the leadership change in Ljubljana and the gradual broadening of activity on both markets point in the right direction.
With H1 2026 earnings season approaching across regional listings, and dividend payments from the spring round now largely distributed, attention turns to whether corporate results can continue to support the trading activity seen so far this year. Should the broader earnings picture remain consistent with fundamentals, the trajectory established in 2025 and confirmed through H1 2026 has reasonable scope to extend into the second half of the year. As always, the precise pace will ultimately depend on the interplay between regional fundamentals and a global backdrop that, for the moment, remains anything but calm.
On a related note, H1 2026 also marked the successful listing of 7POL, our Polish equity ETF and the sixth product in the InterCapital ETF lineup, alongside 7CRO, 7SLO, 7BET, 7CASH, and 7GROM. Listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange on 19 May and on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on 25 May, 7POL generated EUR 6.6m of turnover on the ZSE in its first weeks of trading, immediately establishing itself among the more actively traded ETFs on the exchange. The product is also accessible through our Genius application, and for any additional questions, feel free to reach out at etf@intercapital.hr.
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 look forward to supporting investors through the remainder of what is shaping up to be another constructive year for regional capital markets.