Yesterday, the main indices of both Croatian and Slovenian stock market recorded a sharp decrease of 4.91% and 3.76%, respectively.

Yesterday, the Croatian and Slovenian stock market observed a sharp decrease, which could be seen when observing the performance of main stock exchange indices. CROBEX recorded a decrease of 4.91%, closing at 1,922.4 points, with all constituents ending the day in red. Note that the last time the index observed such a sharp daily decrease was in August of 2011, when CROBEX observed a change of -4.6%. Meanwhile, a higher decrease than the one observed yesterday was witnessed in June of 2009, when the index recorded a decrease of 6.78%.

It is also worth noting that yesterday 54 out of 63 traded stocks ended the day in red.

Of the CROBEX constituents, Ericsson NT witnessed the highest decrease of 8.59%, followed by Optima Telekom with a 8.57% decrease.

As a result of the sell-off, ZSE observed an extremely high turnover of HRK 54m (or EUR 7.2m), which is roughly 5 times higher compared to the average daily turnover of 2019.

Share Price Performance of CROBEX Constituents (24.2.2020) (%)

When observing the main index of the Slovenian Stock Exchange, SBITOP, one can notice a decrease of 3.76%, with the index closing at 942.73 points, with all constituents ending the day in red as well. Note that the last time the index recorded a higher daily decrease was in August of 2015, when the index recorded a change of -4.7%.

Of the SBITOP constituents, Unior recorded the highest decrease of 6%. Of the index heavy weights, Krka observed a decrease of 4.4%, while Petrol recorded a decrease of 4.9%.

Share Price Performance of SBITOP Constituents (24.2.2020) (%)

Comparing to last week it appears that markets in general have started to give a heavier weight to potential risks relating to Coronavirus. When observing our region, we believe that such a market reaction is even more pronounced due to the fact that virus outbreak hit northern Italy – which not only is a strong trading partner but is also geographically in proximity to both Slovenia and Croatia. Besides that, the local market seems to have witnessed a spillover of the global markets, which also ended the yesterday’s trading day in red. Although it is still uncertain on whether the above stated news will affect the FY 2020 results, further escalation in relation to the virus could certainly skew the previously established outlooks.

In the graph below you can see the yesterday’s performance of global indices.