SLOVENIA
Exports, imports plummet in April
Slovenia's exports dropped by 28.8% to EUR 2.01 billion in April compared to April 2019, the sharpest contraction since 2008, while imports plummeted by 41.2% to EUR 1.86 billion, the Statistics Office said on Tuesday. The trend was driven by a decline in car trade, which shrank by about three-quarters compared to last April. (STA)
BTC group with boosted revenue and profit in 2019, dividend down
The BTC group, the operator of Ljubljana's shopping and logistics hub BTC City, generated EUR 71.74 million in sales revenue in 2019, up 3.1% compared to 2018. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization increased by 14.4% to EUR 20.08 million year-on-year, whereas net profit totalled EUR 7.33 million, up almost by 20%. (STA)
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
S&P 500 erases its loss for the year as stocks rally on reopening optimism; European markets close lower as focus remains on pandemic and economic recovery; BELEX15 down 0.47%; Serbia will be ready to receive gas from Turkstream by the end of 2020
The stock market rallied once again on Monday, pushing the S&P 500 into the green for the year as the benchmark completed its wild round trip amid the coronavirus pandemic. Investors are growing more and more optimistic about a speedy economic recovery as states continue to reopen.
Stocks finished the day at their session highs with the S&P 500 jumping 1.2%, or 38.46 points, to 3,232.39. The equity benchmark turned positive for the year in the final moments of Monday and has now bounced more than 47% off its March low. At one point this year, the S&P 500 was down more than 30%. It’s now positive for 2020 by 0.05%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 461.46 points higher, or 1.7%, to 27,572.44, trimming its 2020 losses to 3.3%. The Nasdaq Composite was up 1.1% to 9,924.74, hitting a fresh record high and bringing its year-to-date gains to 10.6%.
Investors will be concentrating on the Federal Reserve’s statement on interest rates Wednesday and a press conference from Chairman Jerome Powell. The Fed is expected to reiterate its commitment to unlimited asset purchases to keep markets functioning.
European stocks closed slightly lower Monday as investors weighed an economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and global protests against racism.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 provisionally closed down by over 0.2%. Technology shares were the worst performers, down about 1.6%, while banks on the other hand rose nearly 1.6%.
Bloomberg News reported Sunday that AstraZeneca had approached U.S. rival Gilead Sciences last month regarding a potential merger, which would be the largest pharmaceutical tie-up in history. The British drugmaker’s shares slid almost 3%.
Serbian BELEX15 was down 0.47% as Belgrade Airport lost 2.2%. The most traded name was Komercijalna Banka, with RSD 22.5m in volume. All other names were not worth mentioning in Monday as they delivered less then RSD 2m in volume each. We saw no specific corporate news.
From broad economy, we had a statement from the director of Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic. As he said for Vecernje Novosti that gas prices would not go up in 2020. He announced that Srbijagas would inform all the potential individual consumers on the new model of connection the next week. When asked about the gas from TurkStream, Bajatovic said that, by the end of the year, Serbia would be ready to receive and transport gas to Hungary and that Bulgaria claimed that it would complete its
compressor stations by October 2021. (CNBC, ILIRIKA)
