Bucharest Share Indices Gain, Only Investment Funds Drop

The blue-chip BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, gained 2.05% to 4,436.40 points. The composite BET-C index rose 1.3% to 2,650.73 and the ROTX index of Romania's 15 most liquid stocks, a joint index of the BVB and the Vienna Stock Exchange, climbed 2.31% to 9,367.51.

The BET-FI index, which tracks the SIFs, sank 4.69% to 23,136.28 points.

“With all the political tensions going on investors probably think that the SIFs’ ownership ceiling issue is put aside and it’s not clear when it will be resolved,” one broker told SeeNews.

Last month the budget and finance commission of Romania’s Senate proposed raising the ownership limit for a single shareholder in the SIFs to 5.0% from the current 1.0% instead of scrapping it. But last week Romania’s two-party ruling coalition broke up and the minority government is facing a no-confidence procedure.

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.

The broker also said he expects the indices to stabilize at the current in the next few days.

BVB's turnover rose to 34.3 million lei ($11.8 million/8.0 million euro) from 25.4 million lei on Tuesday. The number of traded shares was almost unchanged at 100.7 million compared to 101 million on Tuesday.

SIF 5 Oltenia dipped 4.07% to 1.18 lei in the day's largest turnover of 6.1 million lei. SIF 2 Moldova lost 5.31% to 1.07 lei on deals worth 3.1 million lei, Wednesday’s second largest turnover.

Blue-chip oil refinery Rompetrol Rafinare climbed 2.99% to 0.062 lei in the day’s third largest turnover of 2.5 million lei, and Rompetrol Well Services was the session's biggest riser for a second straight day, jumping 11.55% to 0.483 lei in 1.3 million lei turnover. Dutch-based Rompetrol Group is the majority owner in both companies and is expected to launch buyout bids for the remaining stakes later this week.

SIF 1 Banat Crisana slid 6.09% to 1.08 lei in 1.7 million lei turnover. SIF 3 Transilvania fell 4.2% to 0.685 lei in 2.2 million lei turnover.

Blue-chip bank BRD ended 3.33% higher at 12.4 lei in 2.0 million lei turnover, while its blue-chip peer Banca Transilvania advanced 3.8% to 1.64 lei in 1.6 million lei turnover. Austria’s Erste Bank closed up 1.63% at 124.7 lei in 1.4 million lei turnover.

Blue-chip oil and gas group Petrom gained 3.05% to 0.27 lei in a turnover of 1.4 million lei, and blue-chip oil and gas company Dafora dropped 5.98% to 0.11 lei in deals worth 1.6 million lei.

The BET-XT index, which tracks the 25 most liquid companies on the bourse, including the SIFs, was up 0.02% to 438.76 points. The BET-NG, which includes companies from the energy sector and utilities, gained 1.46% to 604.52 points.

Rasdaq-C, the composite index of the over-the-counter market RASDAQ, edged up 0.32% to 2,185.90. Turnover on the RASDAQ rose to 1.4 million lei from 1.0 million lei on Tuesday.

(1 euro = 4.2705 Romanian lei)