The Prague bourse registered a record trading volume on August 26, reaching CZK5.17bn (€0.2bn). It was the largest volume of trades since the shares trading system Xetra was introduced in 2012, and was driven by the traded shares of the majority-state-owned energy utility ČEZ.

"In the final auction, ČEZ jumped up by 1.85 per cent to CZK1,266 per share at the record volume of CZK3.88bn,” Fio bank’s broker Josef Dudek was quoted as saying by the Czech Radio (CRo).

CRo noted that the average daily volume of trading on the bourse is well below CZK1bn, and that this summer, the volume of trading surpassed CZK1bn only once.

Despite the record figures, the Prague Stock Exchange PX index weakened for the fifth time in a row by 0.04 per cent to 2,287.95 points on August 26, pushed down by shares of Doosan Škoda Power and shares of Austrian financial groups.   

Doosan Škoda Power shares fell by 4 per cent to CZK384, while Erste Bank dropped by 2.61 per cent to CZK2,050 and VIG by 1.05 per cent to CZK1,132. 

Trades with ČEZ shares have registered significant spikes this month. On August 5, traded ČEZ shares reached the volume of CZK950.6mn with 766,375 shares traded overall, which is four times more than the daily average of traded volume during the last year, the business section of the online news outlet Seznam Zprávy (SZ) observed earlier this month.

The volume of traded ČEZ shares also represented a vast majority of all the trading activity on the bourse on August 5, which amounted to about CZK1.2bn.

As bne IntelliNews reported in April, Czech coal tycoon and billionaire Pavel Tykač, who controls one of the largest Czech energy groups Sev.en, continues to buy shares listed ČEZ, increasing his footing in the state company.

“ČEZ shares are the most valuable and the best possible investment offered by the Czech bourse,” spokesperson of Pavel Tykač, Jan Chudomel, was quoted as saying by SZ in April, adding that “we are optimising our [ČEZ] share in time, but we can say it is slowly growing,” and that “considering its stability and yield, we will probably continue to invest in ČEZ stocks as long as it will be possible.”

SZ noted that in the middle of last year, Tykač controlled a 2.43% share in ČEZ through his Cypriot company Belviport Trading, while his business partner controlled 1.43% through another Cypriot company, Abaretia Holdings.

Another Czech businessman, Tomáš Kaňka, who also has a common business history with Tykač, purchased nearly 6.29mn of ČEZ shares, equivalent to 1.22% share in the utility, this year, helping the shares to firm, SZ also noted.

ČEZ shares have been firming steadily since the beginning of the year.