A strong growth pace was also recorded on the liquidity side, as reflected by the average daily trading value, which stood at EUR10.16 million in January-May, up 17.9% on the year.
“The current crisis has highlighted the importance of Romanian companies, and the Bucharest Stock Exchange is an essential pillar for financing their development and the local economy. Investors’ trading activity on the Bucharest Stock Exchange has intensified during this period. The situation generated by COVID-19 created better liquidity in the market, and the stock market benefited from this volatility,” said Radu Hanga, president of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
“Investors took a calm approach to the current situation as compared to what had happened in the market in 2008-2009, and the degree of sophistication of local investors, both institutional and individual, increased significantly. We have noticed divergent evolution during this period for the listed companies, which tells us that we have a maturing local community of investors, who know how to judge the specific context of each listed company, as the context can be different from one company to another, even under the current conditions generated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Adrian Tanase, CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
As far as the stock exchange indices are concerned, the local capital market is still below the level recorded at the end of 2019, due to significant impact by the coronavirus crisis. The BET-FI index, which includes the five Financial Investment Companies (SIFs) and Fondul Proprietatea, posted a less severe decline in January-May, down 7.8% in Romanian lei, hitting 40,087 points at the end of the last trading session in May.
The unprecedented situation generated by the coronavirus pandemic that has led to voluntary and temporary shutdowns in several economic sectors highlighted the priorities regarding the digitization process and the implementation of projects able to stimulate liquidity.
“The digitization of the stock market has become more necessary than ever, an aspect highlighted even more by the current context. Improving retail market access, and moving from a paper-based to a digital economy is one of our major goals as we want to accelerate the process of digitizing the local capital market,” said Hanga.
The capitalization of the Romanian companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange amounted to about RON100 billion (EUR20 billion) at the end of May.