While European stock indices saw a slight rise driven by oil companies and strong corporate earnings, the Zagreb Stock Exchange recorded another day of decline with modest turnover, reflecting investor caution.
Most European stock exchanges traded slightly in the green on Thursday morning, despite uncertainty from conflicts in the Middle East and ambiguous messages from the US central bank. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.13 percent, as reported by Financije.hr, and leading national indices moved similarly: London's FTSE gained 0.1 percent to 10,919 points, Paris's CAC jumped 0.71 percent to 8,467 points, while Frankfurt's DAX fell 0.47 percent to 25,340 points.
Caution prevailed on the domestic capital market. The main stock indices of the Zagreb Stock Exchange continued their multi-day decline. The Crobex index fell 0.16 percent, dropping to 4,433 points, marking its third consecutive day in negative territory. The narrower Crobex10 lost a symbolic 0.01 percent, closing at 2,864 points, recording its fourth consecutive daily decline.
Regular equity turnover reached a modest 393,000 euros, about 200,000 euros less than the same time the previous day, according to Financije.hr citing Hina data. The largest turnover was achieved with Končar shares, amounting to 87,000 euros, with the price rising 0.4 percent to 1,010 euros. This was followed by Adris preferred shares, with a turnover of 86,000 euros, but their price sharply fell 4.55 percent to 105 euros, making it the biggest loser of the day. Shares of Hrvatski Telekom (HT) also recorded slightly higher turnover, amounting to 46,000 euros, with the price strengthening 0.75 percent to 40.4 euros.
Despite the drop in share price, Adris reported solid business results. The company generated consolidated total revenue of 574 million euros in the first half of the year, nine percent more than in the same period last year. Net operating profit reached 46 million euros, marking an 18 percent increase.
On the European stage, Adidas shares were the biggest losers. The sports giant's stock plunged 15 percent, as reported by Poslovni dnevnik, despite the company raising its sales forecast for this year. On the other hand, shares of industrial group Schneider Electric jumped seven percent after raising its full-year guidance, while Parisian cosmetics group L'Oréal recorded a 2.2 percent share price increase following better-than-expected second-quarter sales reports.
Trading was also heavily dominated by geopolitical tensions. The price of Brent crude oil hovered around 87 dollars a barrel, down 0.9 percent from the previous day when it surged nearly eight percent after the US-Saudi attack and briefly exceeded 90 dollars in London. Consequently, oil company shares were on average 0.3 percent higher.
An additional dose of caution was injected by the US central bank (Fed). According to a report by Poslovni dnevnik, the Fed decided on Wednesday to keep the key interest rate in the range of 3.5 to 3.75 percent. However, three members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted for an increase. Investor confusion was further deepened by Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, who promised an "unwavering commitment to reducing inflation," suggesting that monetary policy easing is not on the horizon. In Asian markets, Tokyo's Nikkei index rose 0.71 percent, reaching 61,867 points.
