Romanian Stocks Slide, Unaffected by PM Nomination

The blue-chip BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, shed 0.51% to 2,923.38 and the BET-FI index, which tracks Romania's five regional investment funds, the SIFs, lost 1.88% to 14,431.80 points.

The composite BET-C index closed down 0.65% at 2,107.94. The ROTX index of Romania's 15 most liquid stocks, a joint index of the BVB and the Vienna Stock Exchange, ticked down 0.15% to 6,733.93.

”Nothing important or worth mentioning happened today, the fall was not unexpected. And I see that the nomination for the country’s PM had no effect on the market, or at least it hasn't so far,” one broker told SeeNews.

Earlier on Wednesday Romania's President Traian Basescu nominated liberal democrat Theodor Stolojan to form the country's next government. Stolojan said he would aim to form the new cabinet and present it to Parliament for approval within 10 days.

BVB's turnover rose to 9.5 million lei ($3.1 million/2.4 million euro) from 8.3 million lei on Tuesday. The number of shares traded on Wednesday decreased to 28.9 million from 51.2 million on Tuesday.

SIF 5 Oltenia closed 2.14% down at 0.685 lei in the day’s highest turnover of 1.3 million lei. SIF 4 Muntenia ended 1.49% lower at 0.66 lei in the day’s second largest turnover of 907,000 lei. SIF 2 Moldova lost 1.49% to 0.66 lei in the day’s third largest turnover of 869,000 lei.

Blue-chip bank BRD fell 0.63% to 7.95 lei in deals worth 517,000 lei, and blue-chip oil and gas group Petrom closed unchanged at 0.183 lei in deals worth 335,000 lei.

Blue-chip power grid operator Transelectrica dropped 3.28% to 11.8 lei in 430,000 lei turnover. Drug maker Zentiva SA fell by 1.02% to 0.29 lei in deals worth 844,000 lei, and blue-chip gas transmission company Transgaz ended unchanged at 126.0 lei in 721,000 lei turnover.

The BET-XT index, which tracks the 25 most liquid blue-chip companies, including the SIFs, fell 0.81% to 289.90 points. The BET-NG, which includes companies from the energy sector and utilities, lost 1.00% to 354.29.

Rasdaq-C, the composite index of the RASDAQ over-the-counter market, lost 0.5% to 2,130.69. Turnover on RASDAQ decreased to 898,000 lei from 1.2 million lei on Monday.

(1 euro = 3.8961 Romanian lei)