Page 52 - CE Outlook Regions 2024

5.0 Markets outlook 5.1 Markets - Czech Republic
The volume of trading at the Prague Stock Exchange dropped by 26% y/y in 2023 to CZK123.5bn (€5bn) following three years of y/y growth. Local analysts pointed to high interest rates as being behind the drop in trading, as well as the strong trading year in 2022, which was driven by interest in stocks of the majority-state-owned energy utility CEZ and local banks.
In 2023, the local branch of Societe Generale, Komercni banka, registered a y/y drop in trading by one third, or CZK12.5bn, and the local branch of Erste, Ceska sporitelna, registered a 47% drop y/y, or CZK15.9bn.
In October, the Ministry of Finance reported that the average yield of government bonds was 4.5%, and the average maturity was eight and a half years. The three most active dealers of the government bonds from fourth quarter 2022 to third quarter of 2023 were CSOB, the Czech branch of KBC, PPF banka of the PPF Group, and Komercni banka, the Czech branch of Societe Generale. Czech banks hold two-fifths of the issued bonds and foreign investors hold 29%.
5.2 Markets - Baltic states
Nasdaq's three Baltic stock exchanges saw considerably lower transaction numbers as well as trading asset turnover in 2023 than in 2022, with shares in the Tallinn exchange's now-delisted Baltika seeing the Baltic Main List's biggest drop of 2023 at 46%.
52 CE Outlook 2021 www.intellinews.com