In May 2001 the total turnover on all market segments of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange amounted to SIT 26.11 billion ,which was 50% higher than the month before and almost SIT 11 billion above the May 2000 figure. In the five months of this year the total turnover on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange reached SIT 113.67 billion, which was 11% or SIT 11.2 billion more than a year before.
The highest share in the structure of total turnover was, as usual, reached by shares with 68.3%, followed by shares of investment funds with 16.21% and bonds with 13.76%. Turnover of bonds decreased compared to the April figure of 23% and on that account the shares of corporate issuers gained in nominal and real terms. The turnover of pension coupons was SIT 101 million or 0.39% of the total turnover - double the size and half the share of the previous month. The turnover of T-bills in May was SIT 350 million. The share of the official market in total turnover in April was 67.17%, almost unchanged from April -66.37%. The turnover of shares on the official market made up as much as 81.41% (in April 50.96%) of the total turnover of shares.
The average number of transactions per day in May was 1,143 or 24,005 transactions in 21 trading days, which was below the 2000 daily average of transactions by almost one third. The main reason for the declining number of transactions remains more or less the same - lower number of transactions with shares of investment funds. The average number of transactions with shares of investment funds was 614 per day (in April 722), for company shares the figures were 455 vs.449 in April or 40% of the total number of transactions.
After the daily average turnover of SIT 921.75 million in April, the average was up SIT 300 million to SIT 1,243.52 million. The year 2000 average was SIT 1.08 billion. The average value of a single transaction in May was SIT 1.08 billion SIT a jump of almost 50% compared to April. That was far above the average single transaction of SIT 680 thousand in the year 2000. In May 3,509,416 company shares changed hands and the number of shares of investment funds traded were 91,047,572.
Block trading
150 block trades were reported in May 2001 with a total value of SIT 17.02 billion. That was 65.17% of the total monthly turnover and was above the year 2000 average of 57.7%. Block trading in May reached the same value as the whole turnover in April. In the first five months of this year the value of block trades amounted to SIT 64.68 billion, representing 56.9%of the total turnover on the Exchange in that period. The average block trade in May was SIT 113.5 million, the highest average level since January this year when it was SIT 155.5 million.
Indices
The Slovenian Stock Exchange Index - SBI 20
At the end of May the blue chip index SBI 20 was at 1,768.80 points, up 3.93% compared with 1,701.99 points at the end of April 2001.The decline in April was of 1.54%. Contrary to the month before ,when the index increased in the first half of the month, and continued to depreciate after 12 April to the very end of the month, the SBI 20 recorded an upward trend during the whole month. When we follow the changes of its value during all 21 trading days in May, 13 increases were observed -the highest on 11 May -by 0.88%. The strongest daily drop was recorded on 9 May (0.58%).The spread between the highest and the lowest value of the month was simply the difference between the values on the first and the last trading days. The nominal annual return of the index (the last twelve months)was 8.17%,just bellow the inflation rate in that period.
The Non-weighted Slovenian Stock Exchange Index - SBI
The movements and performance of the SBI 20NT index have more or less followed the weighted SBI 20 index since the beginning of its calculation on 1 July 2000. In May the value of the index SBI 20NT increased by 1.82% from 1,692.01 points to 1,722.86 points. The index increased in value on sixteen out of 21 trading days.
The Free Market Index - IPT
The free market index IPT contributed to the modestly optimistic atmosphere in May with a 1.42% nominal return . Unfortunately it was not enough to recover completely from the 2.41% drop in April. The index recorded constant growth from the beginning of the month until 17 May when it reached the highest level of 1.489,95 points. Afterwards it dropped to 1,415.06 points in only five days. From that day on the IPT continued to grow until the end of May. The index recorded its highest daily growth of 1.44% on 7 May. Its most severe daily drop was recorded on 23 May, when it fell by 2.7%.It ended the month at 1,459.83 points.
The Authorised Investment Funds Index - PIX
In May the PIX index fell by 2.32% from 1,407.07 points to 1,374.36 points. The index recorded only nine "positive " days. We observed two periods with two opposite trends. There was a downward trend until 23 May, when the index lost as much as 5.6% of its value compared to the end of April. In the period from 23 May until 31 May the PIX gained 3.5%.The highest daily growth of 1.17%was recorded on the last trading day of the month. The highest daily drop of 1.24% occurred on the first trading day of the month.
The Stock Exchange Bond Index - BIO
At the end of May 2001 the Bond Index BIO was at 109.07 points, down a negligible 0.06 % compared to 109.15 at the end of April. The index has recorded the smallest changes in value among the Exchange's indices.
Industrial Sector Indices
After "a draw " in April, when three indices gained in value and the other three decreased in May, only one index (Trade) lost part of its value by declining 5%. Five indices increased, the leader was the index Oil and gas with 11.81%. On an annual basis the index Pharmaceuticals gained 20.70% and the indices Oil and gas 19.58%. The Trade and Food and beverages indices decreased 6.33% and 1.71% respectively.
Price movements of selected shares
Prices of twenty-five shares out of a total of forty-two shares on the official market increased during May. Prices of fourteen shares on the official market fell and the prices of three shares with the lowest liquidity remained unchanged.
The highest price growth rate in May was recorded by shares of the bank Banka Koper (almost 43%) mainly due to the disclosure of news about the selling of the bank to a strategic investor (one of the interested major banks, either Italian or Slovenian). Four shares gained between 10%and 13% -Petrol,Dolenjska banka, ordinary shares of Lek and Istrabenz, and the value of seven shares increased by more than 5%.
The deepest drop was recorded by Kompas MTS - 34.91%%. More than a 30% drop was recorded by preferred shares of Kovinotehna and another three shares lost more than 10%. Four shares lost more than 5%.
The comparison of prices year on year offers a similar picture. The value of twenty-one listed shares increased - among them Banka Koper with the highest rise of close to 123% and the company Mlinotest with more than 61%. Ordinary and preferred shares of the company Lek and shares of Istrabenz gained more than 30%. The value of seventeen shares fell - shares of Nika plunged by 58.82%%. Steep drops were recorded also by ordinary shares of Kovinotehna (27.79%), ?ivila Kranj (26.5%) and Emona obala Koper (20.5%). Four shares were not included in trading on the Exchange twelve months ago.
Foreign investments
In May the net inflow of all foreign investments (direct and portfolio investments in shares and bonds, except primary issues) recorded a considerable growth, after the steep fall recorded in March and a similarly poor April. The net inflow amounted to SIT 12,787.4 million (SIT 84.5 million in March and 82.1 million in April), of which 12,679.2 million was contributed by the off-the-organised market and SIT 108.2 million by the organised market (SIT 32 million of outflow in March and SIT 2.4 million inflow in April). A comparison with May 2000 is favourable, since SIT 946.5 million of total net inflow was recorded in that month.
Foreign investors accounted for 1.71% of the turnover of shares on the Exchange market in May (0.74% in April).The share of foreign ownership in the market capitalisation of shares on the Exchange was 7.32% at the end of April 2001.Foreign ownership reached its highest level in May 1998 -12.23%.
Capitalisation
On 31 May 2001 the total market capitalisation of securities, traded on the Exchange (including shares of investment companies - SIT 143..16 billion) amounted to SIT 1,160.61 billion, which was SIT 32.28 billion or 2.86 % more than the month before. Market capitalisation of listed shares recorded an increase of SIT 33.17 billion or 5.65%,due to share price growth.
Market capitalisation of shares on the free market increased by one billion SIT, capitalisation of shares of authorised investment funds decreased by SIT 4 billion (2.85%). Capitalisation of bonds on both Exchange market segments increased and exceed SIT 300 billion - due to new listings.
The market capitalisation of shares listed on the official market of the Exchange increased from SIT 480.71 billion to SIT 586.97 billion or by 22% in one year 's time. The capitalization of shares on the free market decreased in the same period by 6.76%.On 31 May 2001,the market capitalisation of all shares traded on the Exchange (SIT 712.11 billion) made up 17.48% of GDP in the year 2000 - SIT 4,074 billion at current prices. (Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia).
