(Vienna/Sarajevo) The members of the management board of the Sarajevo Stock Exchange, Zlatan Dedic, and of Wiener Börse, Michael Buhl, signed a memorandum of understanding today. This makes Bosnia – after Romania, Croatia and Belgrade – the fourth Southeast European stock exchange to enter into a cooperation agreement with the Budapest Stock Exchange and the Vienna Stock Exchange.
"Austria companies, especially the financial sector, have a strong position in the Southeast European economic region. Today, the focus of foreign direct investments has shifted from Central Europe to Southeast Europe. "Before this backdrop, it makes good sense for Wiener Börse to cooperate with the stock exchanges of Southeast Europe," said Mr. Buhl.
The memorandum of understanding lays the foundation for closer collaboration between the exchanges of Sarajevo and Vienna. The first joint project – just like with the other exchanges – could be an index. "The cooperation agreement confirms once again that our know-how is internationally in high demand," said Mr. Buhl.
The performance of the Sarajevo Stock Exchange has literally exploded in the past few years. Since 2002, market capitalization has risen by around twenty times and at the end of 2005 it was EUR 3.3bn (Wiener Börse: EUR 107.1bn). The average daily trading volumes have also soared in the past few years and hit EUR 1.5mn by 2005 (Wiener Börse: EUR 342mn). The leading index of the Sarajevo Stock Exchange, the BIFX, rose from 1,264.20 at the end of 2002 to 4,045.57 points at the end of 2005.