SERBIA:

Brnabic announces tender for strategic partner for RTB
Serbian President Ana Brnabic stated yesterday that a tender for the strategic partner for RTB would open in June and that a new mine would open in Bor at the beginning the same month. As she said, if the tender is successful, it might have an impact of at least one percentage point on the growth and the employment.
Source: Ekapija

Serbian banks' NPL ratio falls to 9.2% at end-March
The ratio of non-performing loans (NPLs) in Serbia's banking sector dropped to 9.2% at the end of March from 11.1% in November 2017, the country's central bank governor, Jorgovanka Tabakovic, has said Since the start of the year, lending growth has accelerated, to 7.5% year-on-year in March, sustained by the effects of past monetary policy easing, growing economic activity and labour market recovery. Coupled with the activities on the resolution of NPLs, this led to the continued reduction of the NPL ratio to 9.2% in March, Tabakovic said during the presentation of the central bank's May inflation report.
Source: SeeNews

Western Balkans Transport Community launched – Nis-Pristina highway among priorities
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction Zorana Mihajlovic says that the Western Balkans Transport Community, headquartered in Belgrade, has already started operating. She noted that the construction of the Nis-Merdare-Pristina highway would be one of the priority projects. Mihajlovic told the press that the Community had started operating with the first ministerial meeting in Brussels and the board meeting this February in Belgrade and added that the director and members of the standing secretariat would be appointed soon.
Source: Ekapija

REGION:

SBITOP up 0.43%
SBITOP was up by 0.43%, with Intereuropa as a top gainer. The stock was up 6%, on a very low trade volume. Daily looser was Mercator, with 2.3% jump, while Krka was the most traded name, since it delivered EUR 2.5m in volume.
Source: LJSE, Ilirika

INO:

Stocks reverse losses, finish up after Fed minutes show willingness to let inflation run, European markets close lower amid Italian government uncertainty, trade jitters
Stocks closed slightly higher Wednesday — paring earlier losses — after the Federal Reserve said it would be comfortable letting inflation temporarily run above its inflation target. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.21%, S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent, while Nasdaq composite added 0.6 percent.
Shares of industrial conglomerate General Electric fell 7.2 percent Wednesday — its worst one-day performance since 2009— after chief executive John Flannery said he expects no profit growth this year in its already stagnant power business.
Shares of Minneapolis-based Target sank more than 5.5 percent on Wednesday after it reported first-quarter earnings that missed analysts' expectations on both the top and bottom lines.
European stocks closed lower Wednesday, amid Italian government uncertainty and souring market sentiment over ongoing trade talks between the world's two biggest economies. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 1.1 percent, with all sectors and major bourses in negative territory.
Britain's Marks & Spencer surged towards the top of the index after it reported its latest figures on Wednesday. The 134-year-old company posted a second straight decline in annual profit and said it urgently had to modernize in order to not to risk fading away. Nonetheless, its shares rose over 5 percent as results were largely in line with expectations.
Source: CNBC, Ilirika