An optimistic start on the Wall Street, which saw US market indexes up 2% after a 6% drop Monday, propped the recovery of the Bucharest market, and the general index BET-C ended down just 3.4%. BET-C lost almost 15% in three meetings.
The Bucharest bourse fell as much as 12% in the first part of the session, but it later recouped part of the massive loss, supported by a recovery of the European markets.
Bucharest-listed shares opened down after the heavy sell-off on US markets Monday. The major US indexes lost around 6% yesterday, in the first trading after Friday’s downgrade of the country rating announced by Standard & Poor’s.
The decline of Romanian shares deepened in the first half of the session, as the major European markets turned to losses despite gaining at opening. The local bourse hit the bottom after 12:00 local time (GMT0900), when BET-C was down more than 12%. A recovery of the European stocks and the good start in New York helped the local shares limit losses.
The blue-chip index BET closed down 2%, at 4,419.7, while BET-FI, the index tracking Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) and the regional investment funds (SIFs), fell 4.9% to 17,508.6.
BET-XT, which tracks the 25 most-traded shares, ended at 402.7, down 3.1% on the day, while energy stocks index BET-NG dropped 2.4% to 602.4.
The heavy sell-off in the morning pushed the traded values higher Tuesday. The bourse’s overall turnover rose by some 35% to 135.6 million lei (EUR31.8 million).
Fondul Proprietatea accounted for around half of the total, with shares worth RON75.5 million transferred today. Proprietatea closed down 3.9% at RON0.4325, after touching an all-time low at RON0.395 earlier in the session.
Twelve issuers broke through the barrier of RON1 million in traded values Tuesday, reflecting the large interest after such an agitated session. The financial stocks were the most traded with the SIFs posting the largest falls among the major stocks, while Banca Transilvania (TLV.RO) and the Bucharest bourse market operator BVB (BVB.RO) ending in green.
Banca Transilvania shares rose 0.6% to RON1.026, while BVB closed at RON29.86 a share, up 6.4% on the day.
On the opposite end, SIF Oltenia (SIF5.RO) fell 6.2% to RON1.06 a share, while SIF Banat-Crisana (SIF1.RO) stock dropped 6% to RON0.78. (EUR1=RON4.267)