After two months of plunges, which led to 20-30% losses for investors, the Bucharest Stock Exchange made a strong comeback and brought gains beyond expectations for all those who bought shares last week. There are several explanations for this unexpected growth. A pleasant, but not quite credible theory shows that the Romanian market is connected to the international stock exchanges, which went up in the past 48 hours, due to the good news from Iraq.
Market capitalisation has gained more than 200 million dollars in the past four trading sessions, while the investors that bet on certain stocks (Petrom, SIFs - Financial Investment Companies) have gained 10% in only a few days.
The main stocks, especially SNP Petrom and the Romanian Development Bank, had resumed growth ever since last week. However, they soared in the past two days, especially yesterday, once the shares of Financial Investment Companies (SIFs) resumed trading, after the General Shareholder Meetings.
SIF Muntenia and SIF Banat-Crisana, for instance, went up 9.1% and 7.6% yesterday alone. SNP Petrom shares closed the trading session at 1,200 ROL, up 13% since the end of last week.
The unexpected gains made investors euphoric and they extended their "shopping spree" to other shares, which are not so very popular normally. Fuelled by speculations, Oil Terminal increased by 14.5% yesterday, Petros Ploiesti added 14.86%, while Rolast Pitesti went up 10%. However, the best yield has been lately provided by the Oltchim RAâsmnicu-VAâslcea shares, which have gained more than 50% in the past few days, because of rumours regarding a potential share capital increase entailing distribution of free shares.
Whereas the January-March slump was grounded on the withdrawal of foreign investors (given the unfavourable international conditions) and contradictory information on certain companies, the reasons behind this increase are more difficult to identify.
"After two months of decreases, it was only natural for the market to bounce back. As prices went up, the value of transactions also increased, which leads me to believe this is a healthy growth," said Adrian Caramiha, a trader with BRD Securities.
The value of Stock Exchange transactions exceeded one million dollars yesterday, up from last week's daily level of 300,000 dollars.
Nicolae Ghergus, head of operations with Active International, feels the market's general growth was prompted by the euphoria triggered by the increase of several stocks.
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro
