At the end of 2022, Colcap, the reference index of the Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC), made up of 25 shares of the local market, fell 10.28%. This figure represents the average percentage that the titles listed there lost. Only 4 of these 25 stocks closed with numbers in the green, while the rest were in negative territory.
Under this scenario, was it a bad year for the BVC?
For Jeisson Balaguera, CEO of Values AAA, although it may seem so; if compared with the performance of other world stock markets, this result is not as bad as it seems.
(Arab bid for Grupo Nutresa fell, but the legal mess remained).
According to the expert, other markets such as the S&P or the Nasdaq in the United States even registered losses of over 30%. “So if we compare ourselves with other markets, Colombia was relatively better”says Balaguera.
It should be noted that the Colcap market is much smaller compared to the large stock exchanges, which is considered a variable to take into account when qualifying performance.
However, beyond the result, Balaguera highlights other milestones reached in the Colombian stock market in 2022, such as the takeover bids (Opa) that were launched last year, which boosted the negotiations and whose main protagonist was Grupo Gilinski and Nutresa, Sura and the same Grupo Argos.
Precisely the shares of these companies were the ones that had the most important shares in the stock market in 2022.
(Nutresa share shoots up to all-time highs on the Stock Market).
For example, Nutresafrom January 4, 2022, to January 4, 2023 rose about 50%.
Other important milestones were the rise of the dollar, which intensified even more after the change of government in the country and the progress in processes in the integration process of the Chilean, Colombian and Peruvian stock markets.
Integration of the bags
Another outstanding event during the year that ended it was the step for the integration of the stock markets of Colombia, Chile and Peru that seeks to unite these markets under a single entity with the aspiration of building an alternative in Latin America to the predominant markets of Brazil and Mexico.
If completed, this integration would position the three exchanges as the second most relevant market in Latin America.
According to Balaguera, a market with many challenges is expected by 2023, although an important recovery is projected and part of what happens will depend a lot on the new government because it is the majority shareholder of Ecopetrol, which is the main company on the stock market.
“If Ecopetrol is doing well, all are doing well,” says the expert, adding that the oil company has a very high correlation with all the shares listed on the Stock Market due to its size and volume.
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