SERBIA:

NIIS: NIS rescheduled earnings report for 1st March
NIS (NIIS), integrated oil&gas company, announced that it will delay presentation of earnings report for 1st March, on 14:30h. Initial date was on Tuesday, 27th February, after the market close. We expected the company’s net profit for FY 2017 to recover near 2014 level, which implies amount of around RSD 25-26bn, up 78% y/y. The company expects to see it in a similar range - RSD 23 to 24bn. The recovery in net profit arrives on the back of higher crude oil price and good cost control at the company.
Source: NIS, Ilirika

KMBN: Komercijalna Banka reported RSD 7.18bn in 2017 pre-tax profit
In 2017 Komercijalna Banka (KMBN) reported a profit before tax of seven billion and 187 million dinars i.e. about 61 million EUR. Net profit for the same period arrived at RSD 8.1bn, but it incorporates over RSD 1bn in tax gain. The result is anyway better versus RSD 8bn loss form 2016. As stated by the bank, realized profit is a result of improved quality of loan portfolio, resolved issue of bad loans from the past, in accordance with a new regulatory framework, increase in operating profitability in every-day business, cost-cutting measures and improvement of efficiency. Management expects good performance for this year as well.
Source: KMBN, Ilirika

NBS: Annual inflation in January at 1.9%
According to the Serbian Statistical Office, consumer price growth equaled 0.3% in January 2018. Monthly inflation movements were mostly affected by the seasonal decline in the prices of clothes and footwear, and the rise in the prices of fresh vegetables, cable TV services, travel packages and petroleum products. Annual inflation in January fell to 1.9%, mainly due to the high base on account of one-off price hikes of certain products early last year (fruit and vegetables, cigarettes and energy). Core inflation (consumer price index excluding food, energy, alcohol and cigarettes) also fell in January, to 1.2% y-o-y, its new historic low.
Source: NBS

REGION:

SBITOP lost less than half a percentage point
The index of the most important companies in Slovenia the SBITOP index lost almost half of a percentage point on Friday on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. Among the shares of the index, Gorenje's shares fell the most, which fell by 3.51 percent. Total turnover on the stock exchange reached 856,200 euros, and the largest was in Friday's trading were Krka’s shares (572,000 EUR).
Source: Ilirika

Jozef Kausich new CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo
At the head of Intesa Sanpaolo, formerly Banka Koper, Jozef Kausich is from February the new CEO. He took over from Giancarla Mirando.
Source: Ilirika

INO:

Dow rallies 347 points as stocks close higher for the week, Europe markets close mixed amid corporate earnings, Valeo down 11%
Stocks rallied on Friday as interest rates slipped further from a four-year high, pushing the major indexes higher for the week. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 347.51 points higher at 25,309.99, with Intel as the best-performing stock. The S&P 500 gained 1.6 percent to end at 2,747.30, with utilities and energy as the best-performing sectors. Entering Friday's session, the Dow and S&P 500 were on track to close down by 1 percent for the week. They finished the week with gains of 0.4 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. The Nasdaq composite advanced 1.8 percent to 7,337.39 as shares of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet all rose. For the week, the index rose 1.4 percent.
The Fed released its monetary policy report Friday morning, which said the central bank sees the U.S. economy past full employment, albeit with only "moderate" wage gains.
In corporate news, General Mills agreed to buy natural pet food company Blue Buffalo for about $8 billion in cash. Shares of Blue Buffalo surged more than 17 percent. Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped nearly 10.5 percent after reporting quarterly earnings and strong forward guidance.
Equities in Europe closed slightly higher on Friday afternoon as investors reacted to earnings and waited for a report from the Federal Reserve. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.23 percent to the upside with major bourses and sectors moving in different directions.
In corporate news, RBS closed 4.9 percent lower despite posting its first full-year profit in a decade. The state-owned lender reported a loss in its fourth-quarter of 583 million pounds ($812.5 million).
The inflation rate in the euro area reached 1.3 percent in January, which is 0.1 percentage point less than in December, according to the second assessment by the European Statistical Office Eurostat. In the EU, inflation was 1.6% in January, which as well 0.1 percentage point less than in December. In Slovenia, it was 1.7%, which amounts to 0.6 pp lower inflation than in December.
The German budget last year reached 36.6 billion euros of surplus, which is 1.8 billion less than the original estimate, according to a German news agency dpa. A high surplus was indicated already in the first half of the year, when it was record high on a semi-annual level.
Source: CNBC, Ilirika