Bucharest Bourse Rises 0.5% As Fondul Proprietatea Reaches New Highs

09.26.2013 By Bogdan Neagu

Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) continued to gain strongly Thursday morning, after yesterday’s announcement of share buyback program, lifting along the other stocks traded in Bucharest.

The fund said Wednesday morning that it plans to launch a public tender offer for 4.35% of its own shares in a move to accelerate a buyback program initiated in April last year. Investors now hope the offer price will be higher than the current market quotes.

At around 11:21 local time (GMT0821), Proprietatea traded up 3.2%, at 0.761 lei (EUR0.17) per share, after touching an all-time high of RON0.7635 earlier in the day.

The Bucharest bourse’s main index BET was up 0.45%, as Proprietatea’s strong increase was countered by losses of Banca Transilvania (TLV.

Composite index BET-C was up 0.59%, while extended blue-chip index BET-XT was 0.43% higher.

Investment fund tracker BET-FI was up 1.24%, with SIF Moldova (SIF2.RO) gaining 1.3% and SIF Transilvania (SIF3.RO) trading up 0.9%.

Bucharest benchmark index BET-BK was up 0.57%, while energy stocks tracker inched 0.1% higher.

The bourse’s traded value was much higher than in recent sessions, with share transfers reaching RON17 million (EUR3.8 million) at 11:34, helped by the high interest for Fondul Proprietatea stock, which covered more than half of the amount. (EUR1=RON4.4711)