Proceedings

The overview of investments being made in securities by the companies in our sample
is presented in Figure 2. The obtained results show that the analyzed companies
mainly invest in shares, bills of exchange and checks. Investments in stock warrants,
interim certificates, warrants, inward bills, dock warrants and agriculture warrants
proved to be less common within our sample.
Figure 2. The relative number of references to the types of securities in which
companies invest
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Share
Stock warrant
Interim certificate
Participation …
Bond
Bill of exchange
Check
Warrant
~ 310 ~
Inward bill
Dock warrant
(Source: author’s projection)
Agriculture warrant
All
Fina…
Trade
The structure of the securities being used by Czech entities corresponds with the
economic developments within each considered period. During the crisis, there was a
strong distrust in the financial system all over the world. This impacted upon
investments in the stock market. During the past two years shares lost 10% of their
value and have been trading far below their intrinsic value. Bonds were considered to
contribute in making investment less attractive to investors. This can be explained by
having state and municipal bonds presenting a relatively low yield which is closely
linked to low interest rates in the Czech Republic and abroad, and also by not
recording high nominal values for these types of securities. The results being obtained
through the questionnaire also reflect SMEs not being able to invest in bonds in six
digit numbers. A paradoxical phenomenon is revealed through the fact that riskier
types of bonds, such as bonds being issued by corporations, were found do be more
attractive. This indicates the fact that investors tend to rather trust corporations than
the state. As a consequence, in 2010 huge investor interest was documented in bonds
issued by Microsoft, while US government bonds were not found to be so attractive.