September 9 (SeeNews) - The indices of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, closed mixed on Wednesday, with the BET-FI, which tracks the country's five regional investment funds, the SIFs, posting heavy gains due to speculation, brokers said.
The blue-chip BET index of the BVB edged down 0.27% to 4,343.49 points, while the BET-FI, which tracks the country's five regional investment funds, the SIFs, surged 2.93% to 24,130.36 points.
"With regard to the SIFs, there are some rumours that the funds' management has met with a group of senators today about the ownership ceiling [in the SIFs]. Investors speculate pretty much on this issue, that's why I think we will witness some quite volatile trading in the SIFs these days, even corrections as sharp as the gains were in case of negative news," one broker told SeeNews.
In June a group of 15 senators submitted a draft law on the abolishment of the 1.0% ownership ceiling for a single shareholder in the SIFs. In July the legislative council of Romania’s Senate approved the draft. The council is just one of the junior commissions whose approval is needed for the legislative proposal to be voted by the Parliament.
The share prices of the SIFs are very sensitive to any news related to the raising or scrapping of the shareholding cap designed to safeguard the funds from any single investor gaining control.
SIF 5 Oltenia rose 1.65% to 1.23 lei in the day's largest turnover of 11.3 million lei. SIF 3 Transilvania jumped 4.26% to 0.735 lei on deals worth 6.3 million lei, Wednesday’s second largest turnover. SIF 2 Moldova ended up 2.78% at 1.11 lei in a 4.6 million lei turnover, the session’s third largest.
SIF 1 Banat Crisana gained 3.67% to 1.13 lei in turnover of 3.95 million lei, and SIF 4 Muntenia rose 2.11% to 0.725 lei in deals worth 3.3 million lei.
The composite BET-C index declined 0.46% to 2,546.39 and the ROTX index of Romania's 15 most liquid stocks, a joint index of the BVB and the Vienna Stock Exchange, ticked 0.44% lower to 9,191.10.
BVB's turnover fell to 54.1 million lei ($18.5 million/12.7 million euro), including 12.7 million lei worth of bonds, from 98.7 million lei on Tuesday. The number of traded shares dropped to 69.3 million from 412.8 million on Tuesday.
"Leaving aside the trading in the SIFs, it was a session of correction, or even stagnation. Most of the important stocks closed lower," the broker added.
Blue-chip lender BRD depreciated by 2.33% to 12.6 lei in a turnover of 4.1 million lei, while Banca Transilvania ended unchanged at 1.6 lei in 1.5 million lei turnover.
Blue-chip power grid operator Transelectrica ended 0.44% down at 12.9 lei in deals worth 945,000 lei, while blue-chip gas transmission company Transgaz advanced 2.99% to 158.6 lei in a 668,000 lei turnover.
The BET-XT index, which tracks the 25 most liquid companies on the bourse, including the SIFs, climbed 0.63% to 435.15 points. The BET-NG, which includes companies from the energy sector and utilities, added 0.92% to 554.06 points.
Rasdaq-C, the composite index of the over-the-counter market RASDAQ, fell 0.3% to 2,111.86. Turnover on the RASDAQ decreased to 770,000 lei from 2.1 million lei on Tuesday.
(1 euro = 4.2473 Romanian lei)
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