Bucharest Share Indices Sink, Investment Funds Lose Most on Global Correction

The blue-chip BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, dropped 4.36% to 4,123.80 points. The BET-FI index, which tracks the SIFs, tumbled 7.01% to 22,852.94 points.

The composite BET-C index lost 4.06% to 2,512.90 and the ROTX index of Romania's 15 most liquid stocks, a joint index of the BVB and the Vienna Stock Exchange, shed 2.21% to 8,969.45.

“I can point out a few reasons for the falls. At first place we've got the strong correction on the U.S. market due to bad unemployment data, then we've got our political tensions, and then we've got the speculators and profit-takers that have pushed the stock prices further down,” one broker told SeeNews.

"I think the market will recover next week, or at least stabilise at the current levels."

BVB's turnover rose to 41.7 million lei ($14.2 million/9.8 million euro) from 39.1 million lei on Thursday. The number of traded shares increased to 84.8 million from 74.5 million on Thrusday.

SIF 5 Oltenia sank 8.06% to 1.14 lei in the day's largest turnover of 11.1 million lei. SIF 2 Moldova dropped 8.77% to 1.04 lei on deals worth 6.5 million lei, Friday’s second largest turnover. SIF 3 Transilvania dipped 5.59% to 0.675 lei in the session’s third largest turnover of 3.4 million lei.

SIF 1 Banat Crisana fell 7.56% to 1.1 lei in 2.3 million lei turnover, while SIF 4 Muntenia shed 5.26% to 0.72 lei in 1.5 million lei turnover.

Blue-chip lender BRD closed 5.74% lower at 11.5 lei in 3.2 million lei turnover, while its blue-chip peer Banca Transilvania fell 1.89% to 1.56 lei in 2.0 million lei turnover.

Austria’s Erste Bank lost 5.95 % to 118.5 lei in a turnover of 845,000 lei. Blue-chip brokerage SSIF Broker dropped 6.38% to 0.22 lei in deals worth 855,000 lei.

Oil and gas company Dafora, which became part of the blue-chip index on Thursday, tumbled 14.41% to 0.101 lei in 2.7 million lei turnover. Dafora's stock price gained some 85% over the past two weeks mostly in speculative trading.

The BET-XT index, which tracks the 25 most liquid companies on the bourse, including the SIFs, was down 4.99% to 417.24 points. The BET-NG, which includes companies from the energy sector and utilities, closed 4.41% lower at 554.88 points.

Rasdaq-C, the composite index of the over-the-counter market RASDAQ, fell 1.35% to 2,179.40. Turnover on the RASDAQ fell to 3.05 million lei from 3.7 million lei on Thursday.

(1 euro = 4.2735 Romanian lei)