The Czech market was down again following further NASDAQ loses overnight Tuesday, and given the overall selling mood in emerging Europe. The strongest selling flow yesterday involved Ceske radiokomunikace (CR), which was down 3.31% with more than 65,000 shares changing hands. We believe that fear of a delay in CR’s privatization and market speculation related to Deutsche Telekom were behind the decline. The rest of the market followed suit, there being no particular will to buy — CEZ lost 2.63%, and KB lost 1.9%. Demand from retail investors is weakening which has left the market without its main recent support. For institutional investors, the flow is restricted to market speculation from London brokers. Unless we see the recovery a major foreign market, the Czech market should not be expected to pick up any time soon. Volume yesterday reached USD 15.8 mil.
(Milan Procházka)