Romanian Stocks End Mostly Lower in High Volatility, Investment Funds Plunge on Speculation

The BET-FI index, which tracks the SIFs, sank 7.43% to 17,851.52 points. “The speculators were the culprits for the stark declines of the SIFs,” one broker told SeeNews.

The blue-chip BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, fell 1.72% to 3,539.07. The composite BET-C index shed 0.82% to 2,639.54. The ROTX index of Romania's 15 most liquid stocks, a joint index of the BVB and the Vienna Stock Exchange, was the only index to close higher, adding 0.24% to 8,703.44.

The BVB suspended trading for the day shortly after the open on Wednesday as most stocks tumbled by more than 12% from their Tuesday closes. The sharp declines came as the markets in Asia and Europe were weighed down by concerns that the credit crisis will worsen and will lead to a global recession.

BVB’s turnover quadrupled to 40 million lei ($14.3 million/10.4 million euro) on Thursday. The number of shares traded on Thursday increased to 63.3 million from 18.4 million.

“The volatility was extremely high. At the opening the prices crept up in line with the key markets in Europe, but then the speculators brought prices down. The volatility is high because the pressure by the investors was very high and the price movements are strongly affected by the emotional factor,” the broker added.

SIF 2 Moldova tumbled by 9.09% to 0.8 lei in the day’s highest turnover of 5.2 million lei. Blue-chip bank BRD added 1.84% to 8.3 lei in the day's second largest turnover of 4.8 million lei. SIF 5 Oltenia lost 7.84% to 0.94 lei in the day's third largest turnover of 4.5 million lei.

Blue-chip oil and gas group Petrom appreciated by 0.79% to 0.254 lei in a 3.3 million lei turnover, and blue-chip power grid operator Transelectrica rose 0.75% to 13.4 lei on deals worth 757,000 lei.

SIF 1 Banat Crisana slumped 9.68% to 0.84 lei on deals worth 3.4 million lei. Romania’s largest fertiliser maker Azomures plunged by 14.99% to 0.295 lei in 703,000 lei turnover.

The BET-XT index, which tracks the 25 most liquid blue-chip companies, including the SIFs, dropped 3.01% to 352.62 points. The BET-NG, which includes companies from the energy sector and utilities, fell 3.84% at 486.57.

Rasdaq-C, the composite index of the RASDAQ over-the-counter market, shed 0.72% at 2,527.09. Turnover on RASDAQ rose to 3.0 million lei from 1.2 million lei on Wednesday.

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

(1 euro = 3.8293 Romanian lei)