The Macedonian Stock Exchange has wrapped up another week with more movement on paper than in reality. Total turnover reached 91.6 million denars across 409 transactions - a drop of around 4.5 percent compared with the first week of May. Figures that mean nothing to most citizens, but that paint a faithful picture of the state of a small, shallow exchange.

As usual, the turnover was driven by a few familiar names. Komercijalna Banka was the most traded at 25.5 million denars, followed by Alkaloid at 19.4 and Makedonski Telekom at 15.1 million. That's almost the whole story of our exchange - a few big shares everything revolves around, and a long tail of securities that barely budge.

The most telling number of the week: only two companies ended with a rise in market value - Avtomakedonija Skopje at three percent and Stopanska Banka Skopje at a modest 0.39 percent. On the other side, Univerzalna Investiciona Banka fell 3.77 percent, and even Alkaloid finished in the red, down two percent.

For investors, the numbers are a working routine. But for the ordinary reader, the state of the exchange is an indirect mirror of something bigger - how much capital actually moves in the country, how many firms are valuable enough to be traded, and why, even after thirty years of a market economy, our exchange still rests on the backs of a few shares. It's no front-page drama, but it is a quiet indicator of how shallow the water remains in which we all claim to be swimming.