Weekly Market Watch - 25-31 August 2008
September 1, 2008
Stock and Bond Markets
Last week the Galt & Taggart Index (GTI) rose by 0.18% to 481 in GEL terms on a trading volume of GEL 9,388. Five different stocks traded on the Georgian Stock Exchange with four blue chips among them: Bank of Georgia (GEB, Buy, unchanged), Galt & Taggart Capital (GTC, Buy, unchanged), Telasi (AEST, Sell, unchanged) and People’s Bank of Georgia (AMB, up 23.44%). Blue chip stocks accounted for 63.46% of the total weekly trading volume.
Last week Bank of Georgia ’s global depositary receipts (GDRs) fell by 3.1% on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: BGEO) to US$ 12.6. Total of 532,963 GDRs traded on LSE last week.
Economy
In January-June 2008, Georgia ’s foreign trade turnover reached US$ 3.97bn, up 43.6% y/y. The negative balance of trade of Georgia widened by 40.8% y/y to US$ 2.37bn.
In January-June 2008, Turkey remained the major trading partner of Georgia with the trading volume amounting to US$ 569.8mn. Trading volume with Turkey accounted for 14.3% of the total foreign trade turnover.
In the reporting period, Azerbaijan was Georgia ’s second largest trading partner after Turkey , with the turnover reaching US$ 402.4mn (10.1% of the total foreign trade turnover).
In January-June 2008, Ukraine was the third largest trading partner of Georgia with the trading volume amounting to US$ 379.5mn. Trading volume with Ukraine accounted for 9.5% of the total foreign trade turnover.
Other key trading partners of Georgia include: Germany (US$ 283.3mn – 7.1%), Russia (US$ 236.3mn – 5.9%), the USA (US$ 222.5mn – 5.6%), China (US$ 172.6mn – 4.3%), the UAE (US$ 172.1mn – 4.3%), Bulgaria (US$ 141.3mn – 3.6%) and Italy (US$ 100.7mn – 2.5%).
In January-June 2008, Georgian exports rose by 47.9% y/y, and imports rose by 42.5% y/y.
Ferroalloys, scrap of ferrous metals as well as copper ore and concentrates remained the largest export categories. Georgia exported US$ 141.6mn (rose by US$ 89.6mn y/y) worth of Ferroalloys and US$ 82.3mn (grew by US$ 31.3mn y/y) worth of scrap of ferrous which accounted for 17.6% and 10.2% of all exports, respectively. In the same period, copper ore and concentrates exports rose to US$ 73.4mn (up US$ 28.4mn y/y), or 9.1% of total exports.
Traditionally oil and oil products accounted for the largest share (12.7% or US$ 401.4mn, a US$ 173.2mn increase y/y) of imports. Motor vehicles were the second largest import category - US$ 360.5mn (up US$ 193mn y/y) or 11.4% of total imports. Grain accounted for 1.6% or US$ 49.6mn (down US$ 3.7mn y/y), of all imports.
Banking Sector
According to the data released by the National Bank of Georgia in 7M08, assets of Georgian commercial banks grew to GEL 8.9bn, up 51.67% y/y. Total shareholders’ equity rose to GEL 1,852mn, up 69.43% y/y. Total loans increased to GEL 5.67bn, up 52.15% y/y, while total deposits rose by 34.5% y/y, to GEL 4.13bn. In 7M08, total banking sector net income increased to GEL 88.97mn, up 28.94% y/y. The leading Bank by total assets was Bank of Georgia with GEL 3.02bn in assets. The Bank of Georgia also accounted for 61.21% share of Georgian banking sector’s net income with the net income of GEL 54.46mn, according to NBG’s data.
FX Market
Last week GEL/US$ exchange rate fell by 0.21%. The weekly turnover on the Tbilisi Interbank Currency Exchange (TICEX) was US$ 20.1mn, US$ 29.1mn less than in the previous week. The National Bank of Georgia’s (NBG) net sales were US$ 15mn.
Source: Galt and Taggart Securities, September 2008
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