Trading activity increasing on Bucharest Stock Exchange as indices climb to new record highs

Investors at the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) intensified their trading activity in the first seven months of this year as the stock indices climbed to new highs.

Between January and July, the cumulative value of transactions with all types of instruments exceeding RON 10.4 bln (EUR 2.1bln), 56% more than in the same period last year.

About 40% of the total value, namely over RON 4 bln, represented new equity and bond issues as both the Romanian Government and private companies raised money from the local capital market.

Real estate developer One United (ONE) and naval transport group TTS carried out the first private IPOs on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the last three years. Meanwhile, a handful of other smaller companies raised financing through private placements and listed their shares on the secondary market AeRO.

“The Romanian stock exchange is like an investment mall: the same platform now hosts a much wider range of companies and offers exposure to new sectors that have been absent from the capital market or that have been underrepresented,” commented Radu Hanga, President of the Bucharest Stock Exchange’s Board of Directors.

He added: “The result is that the attractiveness of the stock market has increased, both for issuers and investors. We have managed to overcome the dilemma engulfing the stock market for so many years: if we need more investors or more companies first. The answer given by the market is that once the listings went more smoothly, investors started to appear.”

Bucharest Stock Exchange indices climb to new highs

The increased financing activity on the Bucharest Stock Exchange as well as the higher investment volumes were stimulated by the positive stock price evolution in the wider international context.

Bucharest Stock Exchange’s blue-chip index BET climbed to a new all-time high as it broke the 12,000-point level for the first time in July. In the first seven months of this year, the BET gained over 20% making Romania one of the top-performing capital markets in Europe.

“It is essential to look at this phenomenon in the context in which the capital market has reached new all-time highs every month, and the prospect of rising inflation has led more and more Romanians to find more efficient channels for their savings,” Hanga said, referring to the higher volume of new financing on BVB.

(Photo source: BVB)