FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES
SEMI ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER 2006
BELGRADE STOCK EXCHANGE
On the Belgrade Stock Exchange (BSE)
turnover rose by 65% (in EUR), posting
positive trends in the securities
participation in the turnover structure.
Gordana Dostanic
Managing Director
In accordance with the official statistics, in first
half of the 2006 production and export, bank
investments and foreign exchange reserves
within the National Bank of Serbia continued
their upward trend, while inflation and monetary
indicators slowed down. Structural and
economy transformation affected the capital
market, as well. On the Belgrade Stock
Exchange (BSE) turnover rose by 65% (in EUR),
posting positive trends in the securities
participation in the turnover structure (shares
increased participation to 84% while the
Republic of Serbia bonds accounted 16% of
total trading). The most traded stocks came
from the food industry. Market capitalization of
the BSE of over EUR 7.3 billion, composite
BELEXfm all shares index which in the first six
months gained 3%, and foreign investors
participation of 46% all together confirmed
optimistic expectations of capital market
participants.
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
The BSE was originally founded in 1894.
The last meeting was held in 1941. Formally,
the Stock Exchange was closed in 1953, as an
unnecessary and wasteful institution.
The BSE was refunded in 1989, first as a
“Yugoslav Capital Market,” by the force of
Money Market and Capital Market Law. In
1992, the BSE officially got its name back,
continuing the tradition of the old stock
exchange, which was one of the biggest South
European stock exchanges. The key events in
the latest history of the BSE are:
• 2002: Republic of Serbia bonds trading
began; the 1st international conference of the
BSE was held;
• 2003: The series of expositions and shows
in honour of 110 years of the BSE was held;
the 2nd international conference of the BSE
was held and the project of informational
platform of the Stock Exchanges of SE Europe
was introduced; testing of remote trading has
begun;
• 2004: Remote trading was launched; the
BSE achieved full membership in FEAS;
continuous trading of stocks has begun; the
3rd international conference of the BSE was
held. With the Academy and Exhibition, 110th
anniversary of the BSE was celebrated;
BELEXfm index has been lunched. The
composite index represents all stocks on the
BSE free market;
PAGE 56
In comparison with the previous period, positive
changes were recorded in the emergence of
new trading material, new trading participants
(stock exchange mediators with foreign capital),
higher number of different profile investors,
continuous enhancement of capital market
institutions inducing the change of overall
securities trading ambiance and capital market
organization. New set of laws and by-laws is
another novelty, like the Law on Investment
Funds and the Law on Takeover of Share
Companies, and alterations and supplements of
the existing laws regulating capital market.
As for trading, new securities were admitted, the
number of securities trading in the continuous
trading method rose, existing analysis were
refined and upgraded and new ones
introduced, the reporting process was
improved, cooperation established with
• 2005: The BSE became an associate
member of Federation of European Stock
Exchanges; the on-line system for attending
the real time trading, BELEX.info, has been
launched. Furthermore, from that moment, it is
possible to get a real time information on
securities via SMS and WAP; the data
distribution via Data Feed agreements has
begun; the BELEX15 index, which represents
15 most liquid stocks on continuous trading
has been introduced; the 4th international
conference of Belgrade SE on “Preserving
integrity and efficiency of the capital market”
was held;
• 2006: New, advanced internet presentation
of the BSE was launched; a Memorandum of
Cooperation between Vienna SE and Belgrade
SE, was signed in Vienna; the BSE has started
training courses for professionals, general
public and media; Memorandum of
Understanding was signed between
International Finance Corporation (IFC) and
the BSE to establish cooperation in promoting
and improving the level of corporate
governance in Serbia;
FUTURE OUTLOOK
In the second part of year 2006, the BSE will:
• design and develop new trading platform so
that by 2007 it is compliant with FIX Protocol;
• develop the BELEX Listing which will handle
securities listing before they enter BELEX
trading;
various partners both in country and abroad,
the number of end users of information service
offering real time quotes has widen, new
publications were published by the BSE and the
first round of training and educational courses
was organized, which has been very well
accepted by public and is expected to be
gaining in popularity over time.
At the beginning of the year new internet
presentation was prepared and launched, of the
up-to-date design and the user friendly access
to data offering additional tools, indicators and
charts.
Promotional activities of stock exchange
operations have resulted in rising attention and
participation of businessmen and proffesional
investors on the financial market and therefore
in the stock exchange operations. Interest of
general public in the stock market has risen, as
well.
• refine the BELEX Reporting and Data
Warehouse to allow more comprehensive and
instantaneous access to trading data and
statistics;
• develop and put in production RSS service;
• further upgrade existing services for end
users in order to enhance their efficiency;
• monitor the BSE rules and their application,
in order to eliminate possible problems and
improve securities’ liquidity;
• motivate the most liquid companies to list
their shares on the Official Market (A and B)
and explore the possibilities for introducing
new securities and other instruments to the
market;
• sign contracts with additional data vendors;
• introduce training program for public and
media representatives which covers financial
market;
• maintain and enhance communication with
the BSE members, and activities in presenting
the Exchange to the general public in Serbia
and abroad;
• further develop human resources;
• take an active part in international meetings
organized by FEAS, FESE or similar
international organizations and organize one
or more international or regional meetings,
with the goal of promoting international
cooperation; and
• organize the 5th Annual International
Conference ‘Where Are the Exchanges
Heading’, in Belgrade in November 2006.