Prague Stock Exchange drops sharply. Banks are losing, while Zbrojovka and Avast . grow

The PX weakened significantly last Thursday after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while it rose on Friday. Monday’s losses are likely to be the result of anti-Russian sanctions in Western countries.

European shares also started trading around 2%, with banks with ties to Russia losing the biggest loss, notably Austrian Raiffeisen Bank, Italy’s UniCredit, and France’s Société Générale.

Erste Bank shares are the cheapest in Prague, dropping about ten percent to 782 crowns at around 10:00, Komerční banka losing more than five percent to 854 crowns, and Moneta Money three percent to 88.15 crowns. The insurance company VIG loses more than 2 percent for CZK 590.50. The shares of the energy company ČEZ are down one percent, and are trading at 844 crowns.

Česká zbrojovka goes against the trend on Monday, while its securities are strengthening dramatically and gaining more than ten percent to 564 kroner. Avast’s morning performance improved by about 2.5 per cent to 187.60 crowns.

The European Union and some other countries agreed to tough sanctions against Russia over the weekend for its invasion of Ukraine. The most serious of them relates to the disconnection of most Russian banks from the global payment system SWIFT, which prevents banks from conducting transactions with foreign countries.