The main indexes of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) fell by more than 4% in the first two hours of trading on Monday, as the turmoil in the international markets has been growing in the past weeks.

Bucharest’s BET index, which follows the share price evolution of the ten most important companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, went down by as much as 4.1% as blue-chip stocks such as Banca Transilvania (BVB ticker: TLV) and electricity distributor Electrica (EL) lost close to 5% while gas pipe operator Transgaz (TGN) and power producer Nuclearelectrica (SNN) tumbled more than 4.5% (as of 11:45 AM).

The shares of OMV Petrom (SNP), the biggest company in Romania by market capitalization, also went down by 3.8% on Monday morning, as the steep drop in international oil prices has been hurting the company’s results. Moreover, OMV’s management has announced that new restructuring may be needed within the group, as the oil price went down to under USD 30 per barrel.

The Bucharest Stock Exchange has experienced its worst year start since 2009, as the BET had already lost 9.5% in the first two weeks of January. The index has closed in the red in nine of the ten trading sessions this year.

The trading volumes on the Bucharest Stock Exchange have also increased reaching a daily average of more than EUR 12 million in these two weeks, more than double compared to the average level recorded last year, which shows that more investors have been selling their shares.

For updated information on the Bucharest Stock Exchange evolution go to bvb.ro.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com