INO:

S&P 500 ekes out gain, erases losses after WHO calms coronavirus fears; European stocks close lower on coronavirus fears and dovish ECB tone

Stocks closed little changed on Thursday, recovering most of their losses from earlier in the session, after the World Health Organization quelled some of the fears around the deadly coronavirus. The S&P 500 closed 0.1% higher at 3,325.54 while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2% to 9,402.48, notching a record closing high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 26.18 points, or 0.1% at 29,160.09. The 30-stock average dropped more than 200 points earlier.
NBCUniversal-parent Comcast and Travelers both reported better-than-expected quarterly figures. However, Comcast dipped 3.8% while Travelers slid 5.1%.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed provisionally down by 0.7%, with most sectors and major bourses in negative territory. Basic resources stocks led the losses with a 2.9% decline.
The ECB held its interest rates steady Thursday, with President Christine Lagarde’s remarks on the economic outlook for the euro zone seemingly disappointing market participants. The ECB on Thursday held interest rates steady and launched its first strategic review since 2003, in a bid to establish whether its inflation target is still appropriate.
The biggest mover was German construction company Hochtief, which saw its shares plunge 8% after its Cimic unit forecast a $1.23 billion hit for its exit from the Middle East.
Renault shares fell 5% after Citigroup downgraded the stock to “sell,” while Russian mining company Evraz’s London-listed stock tumbled 6%.Source: CNBC

SERBIA:

Ikarbus shares back at Belgrade Stock Exchange

The Belgrade Stock Exchange has reached the decision on including 2.9 million shares of Ikarbus in its Open Market. Trading will be enabled on January 27, the indicative value is 50 dinars, and the book value of the share is 197.51 dinars. Ikarbus's shares were removed from the stock exchange due to the adoption and execution of the company's Pre-packaged Reorganization Plan. The biggest shareholder is the Republic of Serbia, with 26.9%, followed by Univerzal Banka in bankruptcy (7.5%), Beobanka-AD Beograd in bankruptcy (6.3%), the City of Belgrade (5.4%), the Development Fund of the Republic of Serbia (4.5%), the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (4.1%), the Lasta transport company (3.5%) and the PUE Gradska Cistoca (2.1%).
Source: Ekapija

Only 40 state companies able to find purchasers

At the moment, fewer than 80 companies in Serbia are waiting to be privatized, but only about 40 of them can find a purchaser, as public procurement procedures cannot be organized for the others due to court disputes or other property-related problems, Politika writes. As said, in 2020, the ministry will try to put MSK Kikinda, Petrohemija Pančevo, Lasta Belgrade, Jat apartmani Kopaonik, Jadran Nova Gajdobra, Krušik plastika Osečina, Rudnik Kovin, Jugoslovensko rečno brodarstvo, Severtrans Sombor and IP Rad Belgrade up for sale.
Source: Ekapija

TI: Corruption Perceptions Index for 2019 shows no change in Serbia's position

The latest Transparency International (TI) report published on Thursday showed that a staggering number of countries had little to no improvement in tackling corruption, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2019, which saw Serbia at the same place as in the year before with the index of 39 points out of 100 possible. Last year, Serbia held 87th position with the same 39 index points. The latest ranking at the 91st place pushed the country in the lower part of the list for the first time.
Source: N1