Romanian Stocks Close Mixed in Dull Trading

The blue-chip BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, gained 0.53% to 4,700.65 points. The BET-FI, which tracks the country’s five regional investment funds SIFs, dipped 2.12% to 23,243.97 points.

"Trading was sluggish today. In the first part of the day the bourse followed international markets but after the Constitutional Court ordered a vote recount, the market headed mostly down, especially the investment funds,” one broker told SeeNews.

Earlier on Friday the Constitutional Court ordered an inspection of the 138,476 votes ranked as invalid in Sunday’s run-off presidential elections, trying to break a political deadlock that has stalled crucial reforms and has delayed the disbursement of the next instalments of an IMF-led aid package.  

The composite BET-C index edged down 0.04% to 2,709.23. The ROTX index of Romania's 15 most liquid stocks, a joint index of the BVB and the Vienna Stock Exchange, added 0.65% to 9,821.62.

BVB's turnover rose to 25.7 million lei ($8.9 million/6.0 million euro), including 2.4 million worth of bonds and 7.5 million worth of three deals with a combined 0.32% of Banca Transilvania, from 17 million lei on Thursday. The volume of traded shares decreased to 26.1 million from 40.1 million on Thursday. 

SIF 5 Oltenia depreciated by 2.38% to 1.23 lei in the day's largest turnover of 4.6 million lei. SIF 2 Moldova declined 1.77% to 1.11 lei on deals worth a total of 4.0 million lei, Friday’s second highest turnover. Blue-chip lender Banca Transilvania jumped 3.32% at 2.18 lei in the session’s third largest turnover of 2.5 million lei.

“There’s ongoing speculation now on Banca Transilvania’s shares after the heavy shares exchange in the past days and following the media reports that a big European bank will become a shareholder in it,” the broker said.

On Monday nearly 42.52 million shares of Banca Transilvania, corresponding to a 4.01% stake, changed hands for a combined 102 million lei in five transactions. The bourse did not disclose the identity of the buyers, but local media reported that an EU-based bank acquired the stake and plans to raise it to 20%.

SIF 1 Banat Crisana also ended 2.63% down at 1.11 lei in deals worth 982,000 lei, while SIF 3 Transilvania slipped 2.22% to 0.66 lei in 933,000 lei turnover.

Blue-chip oil refinery Rompetrol Rafinare climbed by 1.34% to 0.0607 lei in deals worth 337,000 lei, while blue-chip oil and gas group OMV Petrom shed 0.79% at 0.25 lei in 454,000 lei turnover.

The other blue-chip bank, BRD, lost 1.49% to 13.2 lei in deals worth 488,000 lei.

The BET-XT index, which tracks the 25 most liquid companies on the bourse, including the SIFs, ended down 0.32% at 459.01 points. The BET-NG, which includes companies from the energy sector and utilities, advanced 0.55% to 589.42 points.

Rasdaq-C, the composite index of the over-the-counter market RASDAQ, fell 0.71% to 2,213.40. Turnover on the RASDAQ doubled to 1.0 million lei from 431,000 lei on Thursday.

(1 euro = 4.2488 Romanian lei)