The financial world experiences ups and downs every day. In order to give readers an insight into what is happening in the stock markets, “Delfi Bizness” offers a summary of the events of the week (22.01.-26.01.).
Invest in the Baltics
Last year, the Baltic stock market index “OMX Baltic Benchmark GI” grew by only 4.19%. This compares to a lackluster performance by US stock indexes, which were nearing new records. However, if you look at individual stocks, you can’t say that there were no profit opportunities here at home either. In order to understand where to invest this year, “Delfi Bizness” surveyed experts from three Baltic countries. It turns out that experts like Lithuania.
Find out more.
Crypto Autumn?
Just a few weeks ago, there was joy and almost euphoria in the world of cryptocurrencies – the price jumped and the US regulator gave the green light to cryptocurrency ETFs created by investment firms. But since then, prices for digital coins have fallen. Well, almost ten thousand US dollars worth of one “Bitcoin” has already been lost, if compared to the first weeks of January. Looking back, we can say that one of the predicted scenarios “buy rumours, sell news” came true, that is, the positive news was used to make a profit, says Polina Brotje, representative of “Binance” in Latvia and Estonia.
Learn more.
Hope for IPO comeback
The world initial public offering or IPO (Initial Public Offering) market ended last year with weak results, but with the hope of recovery relatively soon. Throughout 2023, there were 1,298 IPO deals globally, down 8% from 2022, while the total investment volume of all deals during the year was $123.2 billion, down 33% from a year earlier. The last quarter of 2023 only worsened the overall picture during the year, writes Guntars Krol, partner of “EY” in the Baltics.
Find out more.
Short news from the markets
Again records. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the USA increased by 3.3% in the fourth quarter of last year compared to the corresponding time period a year ago, thus registering faster growth than predicted. Analysts had predicted that the US economy would expand by 2% in the fourth quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% to 38,049.13 on Thursday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.5% to 4,894.16, and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 0.2% to 15,510.50 points.
It’s calmer in Europe. London’s FTSE 100 rose less than 0.1% to 7,529.73 on Thursday, Paris’ CAC 40 gained 0.1% to 7,464.20 and Frankfurt’s DAX added 0.1% to 16 906.92 points.
Geopolitics and oil. The price of oil in January, according to data from “Bloomberg”, has increased by more than 7%. However, many traders remain cautious and do not expect sharp gains, given the prospect of securing supply from non-OPEC producers globally. Also, slower demand growth is expected in major importers, including India.
Bitcoin ETF eases. According to information provided by JPMorgan Chase & Co., interest in Bitcoin ETFs has begun to wane.
Fires employees. Microsoft, which won the right to buy video game developer and publisher Activision/Blizzard last fall after a long process involving the courts, announced that it will lay off 1,900 people from the company acquired from scratch.
“Tesla” is falling. Shares in Musk’s electric car company fell 12% overnight Friday, stripping $80 billion from the company’s market value, hours after it warned of slowing growth in electric car sales and threats from Chinese rivals. Tesla shares had their worst day in 21 months and closed at their lowest level since 2022, according to CNN.
“Netflix” is rolling. The number of subscribers to the streaming platform “Netflix” increased by 13 million in the fourth quarter of last year. At the end of the fourth quarter, Netflix had just over 260 million paid subscribers. But the profit in the last three months of last year increased to 938 million euros, compared to only 55 million euros in the corresponding period of time a year ago. In response to the positive news, the company’s shares have risen by more than 15% this week.
Does not change interest rates. At the meeting of the ECB Council in Frankfurt on Thursday, it was decided to maintain the main refinancing operations rate at 4.5%, the overnight deposit rate at 4% and the overnight lending rate at 4.75%. In order to fight against inflation, interest rates had previously been increased by the ECB Council for ten meetings in a row.
One more step. “Indexo” has submitted investment commitment letters for the total amount of 4.02 million euros to Latvijas Banka as part of the licensing process of the new “Indexo” bank, which, in addition to the 9.011 million euros raised during the share issue held in December, provides all the capital necessary for obtaining the new bank’s license and starting operations.
Price fluctuations
Samocitsi IPO and the year 2024 is just around the corner. Grishin on the evils of the Baltic markets
Although historically the Baltic markets have grown even faster than the largest and most active world indices, as Juris Grišins, head of crowdfunding platform “Capitalia” points out, last year was an exception. Even the few IPOs that did take place seemed clunky and stilted, meaning investors didn’t rush to snap up shares and companies had to sweat to get through the process. He also tells “Nákotnes kapitalam” where he will invest and what the year 2024 looks like.
“Future capital” portfolios
In 2021, the host of the program “Nákotnes kapitals” Konstantin Kuzikovs started investing 50 euros a week. He invests in stocks included in the “S&P 500” index, that is, in large, billion-dollar US companies. Kuzikovs also started investing in Latvian government savings bonds. On the other hand, his colleague Raivis Vilūns invests in cryptocurrencies, companies traded on the Baltic Exchange and crowdfunding platforms. Investors were also joined by a “robot” – SEB’s automated tool that invests money in exchange-traded electronic funds (ETFs). This is how all three portfolios fared last week:
- Konstantin Kuzikov: +6.2%
- Raivis Viluns: +6.8%
- “SEB Roboinvestors”: +10,29
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2024-01-26 22:07:07
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