Romanian Stock Indices Dip Further in Higher Turnover

The BET-FI index, which tracks Romania's five regional investment funds, the SIFs, sank 8.25% to 22,592.73 points. The blue-chip BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, fell 4.01% to 3,968.19.

The composite BET-C index dropped 4.25% to 2,979.56. The ROTX index of Romania's 15 most liquid stocks, a joint index of the BVB and the Vienna Stock Exchange, lost 4.69% to 9,712.93.

“If traded volumes are growing, it means that there are buyers still. Those who have sold so far have not been wrong because prices are falling and they can buy the same stock at a lower price,” one broker told SeeNews.

“The U.S. market opened higher today as the Federal Reserve said it will help companies meet their short-term financial liabilities. This can lift our market on Wednesday.”

Romanian stocks have been losing ground in the past month, dragged down by panic selling on international markets following bank collapses in the U.S. and Europe.

“Maybe the companies will be the first to feel the effect of the sharply dropping prices as banks will have less confidence in them and it will be much harder for the firms to get credits,” the broker said.

BVB’s turnover rose to 32 million lei ($11 million/8.1 million euro) from 25.3 million lei on Monday. The number of shares traded on Tuesday increased to 48.6 million from 42.2 million.

SIF 5 Oltenia tumbled by 9.16% to 1.19 lei in the day’s highest turnover of 6.5 million lei. SIF 2 Moldova dropped 10.43% at 1.03 lei in the day's second largest turnover of 4.7 million lei. Blue-chip oil and gas group Petrom lost 4.84% to 0.295 lei in the day's third largest turnover of 4.3 million lei.

“Petrom, one of the most important companies in Romania, looks quite attractive at this price, but still there are sellers who probably think the falls will continue,” the broker added.

Blue-chip bank BRD declined by 8.17% to 9.55 lei in a 3.8 million lei turnover, and SIF 3 Transilvania slumped 7.14% to 0.585 lei on deals worth 3.3 million lei. Blue-chip power grid operator Transelectrica fell 3.73% to 15.5 lei on deals worth 850,000 lei.

SSIF Broker brokerage bank was among the few stocks to close higher, adding 1.03% to 0.294 lei on 982,000 lei in turnover.

The BET-XT index, which tracks the 25 most liquid blue-chip companies, including the SIFs, dropped 5.32% to 408.75 points. The BET-NG, which includes companies from the energy sector and utilities, fell 4.41% at 563.84.

Rasdaq-C, the composite index of the RASDAQ over-the-counter market, shed 0.82% at 2,666.36. Turnover on RASDAQ halved to 2.7 million lei.

(1 euro = 3.9513 Romanian lei)