IC Market Espresso 11 Jan 2022

 
Trading Activity on LJSE – December 2021

In December 2021, SBITOP increased by 2.94%, ending the month at 1.258,80 points.

The Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) has published its trading statistics for November 2021, which shows an equity turnover of EUR 36.8m. This means that the average daily turnover was EUR 1.75m (+14% MoM).

Looking over to the total value that was traded in this period (excluding block transactions), this number amounted to EUR 31.6m. Of that number, Krka generated EUR 12.8m (or 40.5%), followed by NLB Group with EUR 7.48m (or 23.6%), Petrol with EUR 4.66m (or 14.7%), Sava Re with EUR 2.12m (or 6.7%), Triglav with 1.30m (or 4.11%), Luka Koper with 1.10m (or 3.5%), Cinkarna Celje with 1.06m (or 3.4%) and Telekom Slovenije with EUR 788.3k (or 2.5%). Combined, these shares make up 99% of the turnover that was recorded on the entire equity market in December.

Looking over at the total equity market capitalization, it demonstrated a 2.8% increase and currently stands at EUR 9.51bn. December also continued the growth trend on the LJSE, with the SBITOP index increasing by 2.94% MoM (ending December at 1.258,80 points).

At the end of December, most blue-chip companies (6 out of 9) experienced an increase MoM. Leading the way in this metric is Petrol, with experienced a 12.6% increase MoM, followed by KDHR Group (3.14%), Cinkarna Celje (1.97%), Krka (1.72%), and Triglav with 1.10%. On the flipside, Sava Re experienced the largest decrease (-3.13%), followed by Luka Koper with -2.4%. It should also be noted that as of the end of December 2021, SBITOP increased by as much as 41% over the entire year.

Performance of SBITOP constituents in December 2021 (%)

Croatian Tourism in December 2021

In December 2021, Croatia experienced an increase in tourist arrivals of 247% and an increase in tourist nights of 113%.

With 2021 officially over, it is worthwhile to look at the latest report of the Croatian National Tourist Board for December 2021. Here we can see that Croatia had an increase of 247% in arrivals and an increase of 113% in tourist nights.

More specifically, Croatia noted 240.2k arrivals in December 2021, compared to 69.3k in December 2020. Of the total number of arrivals in December, foreign tourists accounted for 121.6k or 50.6%. This represents a slight increase MoM of 1.6% when compared to November 2021. This can be attributed to the relaxed pandemic measures in Croatia, as well as increased arrivals due to the holiday season.

When looking at the tourist nights, in December, Croatia experienced 679.5k tourist nights compared to the 475.8k in the same period of 2020. This would indicate that the average stay per person decreased from 4.3 nights to 2.6 nights. When looking only at the foreign tourists, the average stay per person amounted to 3.2 nights, compared to 8.3 nights in December 2020. Even though this number might seem a bit low compared to the December of 2020, one has to take into account the lower numbers of tourist arrivals and overnight stays (2.7x and 7x less, respectively), as well as the lower mobility due to restrictions (and thus longer night stays). When this is taken into account, this discrepancy does not surprise. Of total tourist nights realized, foreign tourists accounted for 388.3k or 61%. Of that, tourists from Slovenia lead the list, accounting for 9% of total nights.

If we were to observe the figures since the beginning of the year, 13.8m arrivals were recorded, representing a 77% increase YoY. At the same time, tourist nights reached 84.1m by the end of December, representing a 54.6% increase YoY.

Looking over to the arrivals realized in December by counties, Zagreb leads the list with 74.1k arrivals (31% of total) and 160k tourist nights (25% of total). When analyzing the data by the type of accommodation, it can be observed that hotels experienced a 321% increase in arrivals to 158.7k (from 37.7k in December 2020), while nights realized stood at 316.2k, representing an increase of 324% (from 74.5k in December 2020).

Last Weeks Value of Taxable Invoices Up by 21.4% YoY

In the period from 22 Feb 2021 till 9 Jan 2022 the value of taxable invoices increased by 25.7% YoY amounting to HRK 187.9bn. The spending amount is 5.2% higher than spending in a comparable period in 2019, yet again indicating positive sentiment. The value of last week’s taxable invoices is up 21.4% YoY while compared to the week before it was down 7.7%.

By looking at the latest announcements from the Tax Administration of the Republic of Croatia, in the period from 22 Feb 2021 till 9 Jan 2022, the value of taxable invoices increased by 25.7% YoY amounting to 187.9 bn. This growth in taxable invoices represents positive sentiment in consumption, especially taking into consideration that consumption is yet again, 5.2% higher in the 2019 comparable period (25 Feb 2019 – 12 Dec 2020). Taxable invoices in wholesale and retail trade in the period from 22 Feb 2021 till 9 Jan 2022 grew by HRK 17.7bn YoY (an increase of 16.5%) and it is also 7% above the value of spending level in this segment in the same period in 2019.

The value of taxable invoices in all segments in the week from 3 Jan to 9 Jan 2022 witnessed double-digit growth of 21.4% YoY. Compared to the same week in 2020 consumption growth also witnessed a double-digit increase of 10.5% beating pre-pandemic spending. In the last week (3 Jan to 9 Jan) the spending in wholesale and retail trade picked up 10.4% YoY. Meanwhile, it is important to note that the value of taxable invoices in accommodation and food in a given week increased fourfold – an increase of HRK 209.2m (amounting to HRK 255.5m) when compared to the same week in 2021. Compared to the same week in 2020, taxable invoices in accommodation and food reported an increase of 4.3%.

The value of taxable invoices in all segments in the week from 3 Jan to 9 Jan 2022, compared to the week before (27 Dec 2021 to 2 Jan 2022) was down 7.7%, mostly driven by the value in wholesale and retail in the same period which decreased 7.6%. When looking at the value of taxable invoices in accommodation and food service, it decreased by 18% compared to the week before.