“FTSE Russel is pleased to announce that Romania will be assigned Secondary Emerging market status effective in conjunction with the FTSE Global Equity Index Series (GEIS) semi-annual review in September 2020,” it said.
The three Romanian securities that meet the FTSE Global All Cap Index eligibility screens based on data as of close of 28 June 2019 are Romgaz, Banca Transilvania and BRD-Groupe Societe Generale.
This is a historical moment for Romania, which had its stock exchange closed during the communist regime and had it reopened for nearly half a century later. When the market reopened in November 1995, it started with 6 companies. Now, the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) has 84 companies listed on the Main Market alone, with a combined capitalization of EUR36 billion.
The upgrade to Emerging Market will allow the Romanian capital market and the Romanian economy to absorb new funds and send a strong signal to state-owned as well as privately held companies that they have significant room to grow by using the stock exchange.
The Bucharest Stock Exchange plans to further develop the market infrastructure by focusing its efforts to make the central counterparty clearing house (CCP) functional in the next 16 months in a move that will create the framework required to significantly improve market liquidity.
The local capital market reached this month a new all-time high for its BET-TR index, which also includes the dividends. The index breached the 15,000-point ceiling this September, which corresponds to an increase of 39% this year alone, making Romania one of the top-performing capital markets in Europe.
“Our goal for the next 10 years is to double the market representation in the local economy – that is the capitalization of the Romanian listed companies as compared to GDP – from the current level of 10% to 20% of GDP,” said Bucharest Stock Exchange CEO Adrian Tanase.