The US economy added more jobs than expected in July, and the New York stock exchange surged at opening, a day after a strong fall that triggered a global sell-off. However, the US markets soon returned into negative territory as the jobs report wasn’t enough to convince investors that a new recession isn’t waiting around the corner.
Bucharest-listed shares were strongly impacted by the negative mood in international markets since pre-opening and they opened down 5%, and continued to fall as the hours passed by. The lowest point was reached just before 14:00 local time, when the general index BET-C was down almost 7%.
A late rally, influenced by the rising US market, pared the stocks’ losses, and BET-C closed down 4.8%, at 2,980.86, the lowest level since November 29.
Blue-chip index BET fell 4% to 4,921.68, while BET-FI, which tracks Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) and the five regional investment funds (SIFs), decreased 4.25% on the day to 20,176.88.
The large sale orders that weighed down on most shares propped the bourse to one of the largest turnovers this year. Share transactions were worth of 110.4 million lei (EUR26 million), taking the stock exchange’s total traded value at RON113.3 million.
Twelve stocks registered trades worth more than RON1 million, a value which is usually topped by only two or three shares in a regular August session.
Fondul Proprietatea was by far the largest traded issuer, accounting for almost half of the overall turnover, following transfers worth RON52.6 million. The fund’s shares closed down 4.2% at RON0.496, after touching their lowest since listing in January at 0.4701 at the opening.
BRD-Groupe Societe Generale (BRD.RO), OMV Petrom (SNP.RO) and SIF Moldova (SIF2.RO) posted some of the largest declines, of 6.9%, 6.8% and, respectively 5.3%, among the most-traded shares.
On the other hand, Banca Transilvania (TLV.RO), up 2.2%, and Azomures (AZO.RO), up 1.5%, were among the few stocks that managed to end in green. (EUR1=RON4.2419)