Strong Sale of Shares on Zagreb Stock Exchange 

Stock exchange (Photo: Pixabay.com)

A strong sale of shares hit the Croatian capital market at the start of trading on Feb. 24. The Zagreb Stock Exchange index lost more than 3.7% even before 10 a.m. and slid all the way down to 1,946 points, and such a big fall was last registered at the peak of the crisis in then Agrokor, i.e. on April 27, 2017, when the index lost 2.7%. 

Although Optima Telekom is seeing the biggest decline of 15%, the sale is nonetheless led by tourism companies' shares. Valamar Riviera is losing 5.9%, Arena Hospitality Group 6.7%, while Maistra is down almost 4%. 

It should be underlined that the sale has already brought a turnover of more than HRK13m, which is over EUR1,700,000. 

Kredes investment company broker Roman Rinkovec believes that there is no dilemma that the sale is motivated by the spreading of the coronavirus epidemic, especially since Italy has been affected. "As soon as trading began, all the shares took a nosedive, only Cakovecki Mlinovi and Koncar-Distributivni i specijalni transformatori saw a rise in prices. 

At the moment, only Cakovecki Mlinovi is in the black," stresses Rinkovec. "Both liquid and non-liquid issues are affected by panic selling," adds Rinkovec. 

While the negative reaction is somewhat expected as far as tourism and transportation shares are concerned, Rinkovec points out that he doesn't exactly see a reason why investors should start getting rid of all the other shares.