Bucharest Stock Exchange makes a comeback on year-end and closes 2014 up 9%

The main index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BET, closed the year with a 9.1% gain, after making a strong comeback in the last six trading days of 2014. The BET reached a six-year high in the beginning of October, when it went above the 7,200 points threshold, but then fell by 10%, to 6,500 points in mid-December. In the last six trading days of the year, the BET took back almost 9% and ended the year above the 7,000 points level for the first time since 2007. However, the 9.1% gain is the poorest yearly performance for the BET in the last three years and the third weakest result in the last 15 years. In 2013, the BET closed with a 26% gain and in 2012 it was up only 19%. The BET index follows the ten most important companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The BET’s performance doesn’t include the dividend yields of the constituent companies. Electricity transport company Transelectrica (BVB ticker: TEL) was the BET’s best performer, after surging 85%. Gas transporter Transgaz (TGN) gained 42% and Banca Transilvania (TLV), the third largest bank in Romania, ended the year up 34% compared to end-2013. Investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP) gained 7.5% this year. The BET’s worst performers were electricity producer Nuclearelectrica (SNN), which dropped 30%, and oil and gas producer OMV Petrom (SNP), down 13%. BRD Groupe Societe Generale (BRD) ended the year down by 2.8%. The total value of stock trades on the Bucharest Stock Exchange reached EUR 2.93 billion this year, up by 15% compared to 2013, and the highest since 2007. This was also due to the EUR 444 million IPO of state-owned electricity distributor Electrica, in June this year. Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com