SASE Future Outlook
Friday, 28 January 2011
Future Outlook
After a rather sluggish year in 2010, there is reason for a more optimistic outlook for 2011. Reasons for optimistic expectations
in 2011 include the announced privatization of State Owned Enterprises (minority and majority stakes) through the Stock Exchange, which would
give the market much needed new trading material. Another promising aspect would be the financing of infrastructure and energy projects through
public offerings of bonds on the Exchange, as well as the issuance of additional series of state bonds for "frozen foreign savings accounts". The
issuance of the first municipal bonds is also only a step away, after the legal boundaries for this step have been removed.
On the Stock Exchange side, the main activities in 2011 will include the following:
– Introduction of volatility interruptions: As a result of decreased liquidity on the market, there is a trend that small trades bring volatility to the share prices. A volatility interruption will be triggered in the event of a potential price being outside either of the two pre-defined price ranges around the reference price. The volatility interruption will contribute significantly to the prevention of price jumps and will help to increase price continuity.
– Delisting of non-traded shares from the market: As a result of the mass-voucher privatization in BiH, many joint-stock companies are listed on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange. Many of them
are traded very seldom or even never. The goal is to get companies from the market which are not interested in outside investors, and not interesting to the investment community.
– Educational / promotional campaign aimed at the following stakeholders on the capital market:
– Going public: The financial system in BiH is rather banko-centric, as most of the finance needs
of the companies are taken to the commercial banks. Our goal is to show to the companies that the capital market is an alternative/supplement for their financing needs.
– Education of the members of Parliament, the government and the administration: The capital market is still not "discovered" by the main actors of the political life in BiH. Our goal is to
educate them, form lines of communication and make them more sensitive to the needs of the capital market as well as the function of a capital market in an market-economy.