SLOVENIA
Slovenian Sovereign Holding chairman Gabrijel Škof resigns
Gabrijel Škof resigned on Wednesday as the chairman of Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH), the custodian of state assets, citing personal reasons, saying he would focus on new challenges. SSH also said in a press release that the holding would now be temporarily headed by Igor Kržan, a member of the supervisory board. (STA)
SID Bank carries out its first "Covid-19" bond issue
The state-owned SID export and development bank has issued its first "Covid-19 bonds" to collect almost EUR 350 million, the bank announced in a press release on Thursday. (STA)
Car sales stabilising after epidemic
The situation in the automotive industry seems to be slowly stabilising after the epidemic, the latest statistics suggest. In the first six months of the year, sales were down by a third but in June the year-on-year drop was only 7.27%. (STA)
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Dow rallies more than 200 points to close out its best quarter since 1987; European stocks wrap up their best quarter in five years; BELEX15 flat; Metalac approved RSD 85 per share as gross dividend. Stocks rose broadly on Tuesday as Wall Street wrapped up its best quarterly performance in decades.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 217.08 points, or 0.9%, to close at 25,812.88. The S&P 500 gained 1.5% to end the day at 3,100.29 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.9%. to 10,058.77. The major averages hit their session high with less than an hour left in the session.
Shares of Facebook and Amazon rose 2.9% each to lead the gains Tuesday while Netflix advanced 1.7%. Micron also contributed to the gains, climbing more than 4% following the company’s better-than-expected earnings report. Micron also gave strong forward revenue guidance. Shares of Lululemon gained 6% on news it will acquire at-home fitness company Mirror for $500 million.
European stocks closed higher on Tuesday, wrapping up their best quarterly performance in five years. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up by 0.25% provisionally, but was up almost 13% in the first quarter. It marks the best quarter for the index since the first quarter of 2015.
European markets whipsawed throughout Tuesday’s session, struggling to follow the positive trend set by markets in Asia Pacific, which rose as China’s official manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index for June came in above expectations.
In corporate news, oil giant Shell announced on Tuesday that it will write down the value of its assets by up to $22 billion in the second quarter after revising down its long-term outlook for oil and gas prices. Shares fell 3%.
Serbian BELEX15 was flat as its change was only minor 0.07% plus. Bigger names were not active, apart from Metalac which generated RSD 3.6m in volume and it was a top traded name yesterday. The company’s GA approved proposed RSD 85 per share as a gross cash dividend, with 16th June as a record date. Own shares buyback program was also approved and it allows a possibility of buying up to 10% of own share over the next 2 years.
According to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS), industrial production increased in May by 10.1% m/m (s-a), thereby making up for the significant part of the March and April downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The recovery was led by manufacturing, which went up in May by 14.5% s-a. Within manufacturing, a monthly rise was recorded in 20 out of 24 areas, including those hit by the weaker external demand in recent months. (CNBC, ILIRIKA)
