STA, 28 December 2018 - Prices of shares listed on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange have fallen on average this year with the SBI TOP losing 0.18% in a year. Stock brokers closed EUR 337m worth of deals, which compares to EUR 347m in 2017.
In a release issued on the last trading day on Friday, the management of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange assessed 2019 as a successful year.
It noted that the value of the SBI TOP index exceeded 900 points for the first time in eight years, which it said indicated positive trends on the Slovenian capital market.
The index closed at 805.06 points today, which is 1.46 points or 0.18% down from the last trading day in 2017.
SBI TOP hit the highest value on 6 June at 907.58 points, falling to the lowest point on 20 December at 790.91 points. The shares of NLB bank were included in the index in December.
Trading volumes in 2018 totalled EUR 337.32m, which is a drop of 2.91% compared to the year before. Block trades excluded, turnover amounted to EUR 286.49m, an increase of 17.7% from 2017.
Most of the turnover, EUR 327.69m, was generated in shares, with bonds contributing EUR 9.63m.
The busiest month of the year was May with trading volumes reaching EUR 51.3m, mainly due to the takeover of household appliances maker Gorenje, while NLB's listing as the first new issue in more than a decade sparking an increased interest in Slovenian shares in the autumn.
Stockbrokers closed 38,108 deals this year, 24.4% fewer than the year before. The average value of a deal was EUR 8,852, 28.4% more than in 2017.
The issue of pharma company Krka remained the most active item, accounting for EUR 86.4m or over 25% of the total trading volumes.
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The shares of chemical company Cinkarna Celje generated EUR 56.47m in turnover, the issue of insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav EUR 43.24m and energy company Petrol's EUR 40.64m.
Of the issues included in the index, the biggest gains were made by those of financial group KD Group (+536.7%), logistics company Intereuropa (+29.94%), insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav (+4.84%) and Krka (+0.52%).
The biggest fallers were the shares of the telecoms incumbent Telekom Slovenije (-28.81%) and port operator Luka Koper (-14.47%).
The total market capitalization of the stock market exceeded EUR 33.366bn. At the end of the year, 67 securities of 41 issuers were included in trading with a total market capitalization of shares of EUR 6.35bn.
This year, eight securities were delisted, while one new share and two new bonds were listed with a total issue value of EUR 1.52bn and two commercial papers with a total issue value of EUR 36.53m.
Gorenje was delisted after China's Hisense became the sole owner of the company, while NLB was listed on 14 November, after an initial public offering at EUR 51.50 per share.
NLB saw almost EUR 3m in volumes on the first trading day and by the end of the year it reached EUR 8.38m with the share closing at EUR 62 today, the highest since the listing and 9.4% above the official listing price.
As regards trading on the new MFT SI ENTER market, 58 securities were listed in 2018, which accounted for EUR 4.725m in turnover. The average daily number of transactions was 2.2, and the average value of each transaction was EUR 8,669.61.