BUCHAREST (Romania), November 23 (SeeNews) – Romanian stocks gained ground on Monday, one day after presidential elections held on Sunday, with the five regional investment funds, the SIFs, standing out, brokers said.
“It seems the market has come out of the state of apathy, in which it was the week before the first round of elections. These are timid gains as further clarification about the political situation is yet to be seen after the run-off vote,” Prime Transaction brokerage said in a daily stock report on its website.
Incumbent Traian Basescu, leading with 32.52% of the votes after the first round of Romania's presidential elections, will face Mircea Geoana, leader of the opposition Social Democrat Party, who got 30.77% support according to partial results, in a run-off vote on December 6.
“Probably there is more money [to be invested] after the second round,” Prime Transaction said.
The elections are seen as an important step towards resolving the ongoing political crisis in the EU member, which has been keeping investors away from the capital market. The minority government of Prime Minister Emil Boc fell in a no-confidence vote in October and Basescu has so far failed to push through parliament his nominations for a new prime minister.
The blue-chip BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, went up 1.42% to 4,913.48 points. The BET-FI, which tracks the country's five regional investment funds, the SIFs, jumped 3.99% to 23,735.54 points.
The composite BET-C index rose 1.42% to 2,834.39. The ROTX index of Romania's 15 most liquid stocks, a joint index of the BVB and the Vienna Stock Exchange, gained 1.31% to 10,239.98.
BVB's turnover rose to 14.5 million lei ($5.1 million/3.4 million euro) from 12.7 million lei on Friday. The number of traded shares decreased to 21.3 million from 27.5 million on Friday.
SIF 5 Oltenia closed 4.17% higher at 1.25 lei in the day's largest turnover of 4.6 million lei. SIF 2 Moldova jumped 4.67% to 1.12 lei on deals worth a total of 2.9 million lei, Monday’s second highest turnover. SIF 3 Transilvania climbed 3.01% to 0.685 lei on the regular market in the session’s third largest turnover of 1.4 million lei.
Blue-chip bank BRD rose 2.92% to 14.1 lei in 1.0 million lei turnover, while its blue-chip peer Banca Transilvania added 1.42% to 2.15 lei in deals worth 439,000 lei.
SIF 1 Banat Crisana climbed 4.63% to 1.13 lei in 948,000 lei turnover, while SIF 4 Muntenia closed 3.68% up at 0.705 lei in deals worth 484,500 lei.
Blue-chip oil and gas prospecting company Dafora ended flat at 0.103 lei in 263,000 lei turnover. Austria’s Erste inched up 0.08% to 125.5 lei in deals worth 227,000 lei.
The BET-XT index, which tracks the 25 most liquid companies on the bourse, including the SIFs, ended up 2.18% at 475.92 points. The BET-NG, which includes companies from the energy sector and utilities, closed 0.69% higher at 622.51 points.
Rasdaq-C, the composite index of the over-the-counter market RASDAQ, edged down 0.06% to 2,233.28. Turnover on the RASDAQ rose to 779,000 lei from 568,000 lei on Friday.
(1 euro = 4.2796 Romanian lei)
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