During January, each of the CROBEX10 constituents noted a share price increase, overall resulting in a CROBEX10 increase of 6.8% MoM and ending at 1,239.61 points.

Since we adopted a new currency, shifting from HRK might distort our perception of actual current prices and consequently, returns on ZSE. So, summarized price changes might help you get a grasp of what a solid month this was for Croatian equity. However, we do emphasize that all of those changes came on a notably lower equity turnover. Nevertheless, the price movement recorded was above expected.

Performance of CROBEX10 constituents (January 2023, MoM %)

Source: Bloomberg, InterCapital Research

Looking at the price performance of all CROBEX10 constituents, we see each one of them in green for the month. The biggest winner (for the month only, of course) is clearly AD Plastik with a double-digit increase of as much as 23.8%. However, we emphasize this kind of return is uncommon and happened due to an exceptionally low base effect, as AD Plastik was strongly impacted by both semiconductor shortage in the EU market and the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the Company has a production capacity located in Russia. AD Plastik is followed by Podravka, which noted also a strong double-digit return of 12.7% in January. Further, a few of the constituents reported a high single-digit return this month. Some of them are Končar, Adris (pref.), Ericsson and Atlantic Grupa with 8%, 8%, 7.4% and 6.6% MoM returns, respectively. Also, HT noted a solid 5.3% MoM increase.

Also, SPAN is more than worth mentioning with a 16.1% share price increase during January. We also note regarding SPAN that the company made prominent YoY performance with an increase in share price by 34.1%, resulting in SPAN being one of the best stocks in the taken period for achieving a solid return. This kind of performance came on the back of solid results with 9M 2022 SPAN’s net profit increasing by 162% YoY on the back of strong sales growth.

SPAN Performance (January 2022 – January 2023)

Source: Bloomberg, InterCapital Research