Bucharest Bourse Closes Undecided, Financial Stocks Dominate Trading

05.14.2013 By Bogdan Neagu

The Bucharest bourse closed mixed Tuesday, in a session where only financial stocks gathered some attention from investors in an otherwise quiet trading.

Bucharest’s BET index closed up 0.25% from Monday closing level, but composite index BET-C inched 0.1% lower.

The blue-chip increase was supported by Banca Transilvania (TLV.RO) and BRD-Groupe Societe Generale (BRD.RO), which added 1.7% and 0.9% respectively, while Transgaz (TGN.RO) rose 1.9%.

On the other hand, OMV Petrom (SNP.RO) fell 2.2%, after the company announced a 4% lower net profit for the first quarter. Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) fell 0.6%, while Transelectrica (TEL.

Proprietatea’s decrease could not keep investment fund tracker BET-FI in negative territory, as SIF Banat-Crisana (SIF1.RO) rose 4.7% and SIF Transilvania (SIF3.RO) added 3%. BET-FI increased 0.38%, despite a 2.9% fall of SIF Muntenia (SIF4.RO), which extended losses from Monday, when it went ex-dividend.

Bucharest benchmark index BET-BK gained 0.63%, supported by Erste Group Bank’s (EBS.RO) 1.9% advance. BET-XT, which tracks the most traded 25 Romanian stocks, went up 0.27%.

However, energy stocks tracker BET-NG ended down 0.37%, as Transgaz and Transelectrica could not offset Petrom’s fall.

The bourse’s traded value was almost entirely covered by financial stocks, with only Transgaz taking the last place in the top ten of the most traded issuers. The market’s total turnover reached 43.6 million lei (EUR10 million), with Fondul Proprietatea accounting for RON16.3 million. (EUR1=RON4.3311)