Romanian stock market drops 4% on Ukraine war

Romanian stocks took a dive on Thursday as Russia’s attack on Ukraine send the world’s equity markets tumbling down. The Bucharest Stock Exchange’s blue-chip index – BET closed the day down 4%, in line with the losses recorded by bigger European indices such as the German DAX and French CAC 40.

All of the companies in the BET recorded losses on Thursday, ranging from 1.3% in the case of Romanian state-owned gas producer Romgaz (SNG) and 9% for Moldova-based wine producer Purcari (WINE).

Aluminum producer Alro (ALR), which is indirectly controlled by a Russian investor – Vitaliy Machitski, saw its shares tumble by 8.85%. Restaurant chain Sphera Franchise Group (SFG) and real estate developer One United Properties (ONE) also lost over 7% of their capitalization.

The war in Ukraine, which will trigger more economic sanctions on Russia from Ukraine’s Western allies, is expected to push up commodity prices with a negative effect on economic growth. This is bad news for the equity markets, which were already showing signs of fatigue after a multi-year rally that has pushed them to all-time highs.

(Photo source: Engdao Wichitpunya | Dreamstime.com)