Romanian Stock Indices Extend Fall in Lower Turnover

The blue-chip BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, fell 2.03% to 3,153.55. The BET-FI index, which tracks Romania's five regional investment funds, the SIFs, lost 1.82% to 15,041.71 points.

The composite BET-C index closed 2.93% lower at 2,356.14. The ROTX index of Romania's 15 most liquid stocks, a joint index of the BVB and the Vienna Stock Exchange, was down 3.46% to 7,062.44.

"On the one hand, it is an ongoing correction in response to the strong gains last week, and, on the other, investors are more cautious and were actually held back by a wave of negative news about companies announcing production cuts not only in Romania, but globally," one broker told SeeNews.

BVB's turnover fell to 16.7 million lei ($5.4 million/4.3 million euro) from 21.6 million lei on Tuesday. The number of shares traded on Wednesday increased to 80.1 million from 61 million on Tuesday.

SIF 4 Muntenia was the biggest loser among the SIFs, dropping by 3.73% to 0.645 lei in the day’s highest turnover of 2.0 million lei. SIF 2 Moldova fell 1.49% to 0.66 lei in the day's second largest turnover of 1.8 million lei. SIF 5 Oltenia lost 2.56% to 0.76 lei in the day’s third highest turnover of 1.76 million lei.

Blue-chip oil and gas group Petrom slumped 6.83% to 0.191 lei on 1.7 million lei turnover, while blue-chip oil refinery Rompetrol Rafinare lost 4.47% to 0.0235 lei on 390,400 lei turnover. Rompetrol Rafinare is expected to report its nine-month financial results on Thursday.

Blue-chip bank BRD depreciated by 2.25% to 8.7 lei on 1.2 million lei turnover. Romania’s largest fertiliser maker, Azomures, ended 5.04% down at 0.264 lei in 995,000 lei turnover.

Blue-chip real estate developer Impact Developer & Contractor was among the few stocks to close higher on Wednesday, jumping 14.97% to 0.043 lei in 1.2 million lei turnover.

The BET-XT index, which tracks the 25 most liquid blue-chip companies, including the SIFs, lost 2.13% to 309.70 points. The BET-NG, which includes companies from the energy sector and utilities, dropped 3.88% to 396.38.

Rasdaq-C, the composite index of the RASDAQ over-the-counter market, shed 0.4% to 2,408.26. Turnover on RASDAQ jumped to 8.3 million lei from 2.5 million lei on Tuesday, as U.S.-based oilfield services company Weatherford International Eastern Europe raised its holdings in architecture and engineering company Atlas G.I.P. to some 95.8% after acquiring a 9.8% stake for 6.9 million lei.

(1 euro = 3.8428 Romanian lei)