UPDATE 1 - Romanian Stock Exchange Resumes Trading

This is the second time this month that the BVB suspends trading for the same reason.

The trading was suspended as most of the stocks lost more than 12%, the BVB said in a statement. Following a discussion, the bourse's management decided to resume trading at 1425 local time, it said.

BVB's blue-chip BET index was 8.38% down at 2,824.30 points by 1147 GMT, and the BET-FI index, which tracks Romania's five regional investment funds, the SIFs, sank 12.22% to 11,176.59 points.

A broker told SeeNews earlier on Friday the losses on the Romanian bourse mirrored the declining markets in Europe and Asia, which are falling by more than eight percent.

The Romanian stock market, along with the rest of the bourses in southeastern Europe, has been losing ground for more than a month now, dragged down by panic selling on international markets following bank collapses in the United States and Europe.