Bucharest Shares Close Down, Proprietatea Touches New Lows

05.25.2011 By Andrei Cîrchelan

The Bucharest shares fell by more than 1% on average Wednesday, with investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) dropping 3%, after being down as much as 4% during the session.

The Bucharest Stock Exchange's composite index BET-C fell 1.16% on the day, to 3,246.71, while 10-share blue-chip tracker BET dropped 1.18%, to 5,418.58.

Both indexes were held back by their heaviest issuer, OMV Petrom (SNP.RO), which dropped 1.38% on the day, as well as the decline of Proprietatea stock, which touched an all-time low at 0.48 lei (EUR0.11), before closing at RON0.485.

BET-FI, the index tracking the Proprietatea fund and the five regional investment funds, or SIFs, fell 0.76% to 21,882.11, as the moderate increase seen by four SIFs could not offset the 0.69% decline of SIF Banat-Crisana (SIF1.

Wider blue-chip index BET-XT fell 0.74%, while BET-NG, the index tracking energy companies, closed down 0.61% on the day.

Trades unfolded Wednesday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange amounted to RON52.67 million, with RON26.81 million coming from Proprietatea trades and RON5.8 million coming from a total four deal market trades in BVB (BVB.RO), SIF Moldova (SIF2.RO) and the Proprietatea fund. Bucharest bourse's total traded value was of RON36.37 million Tuesday.

The second-top traded issuer, chemical company Oltchim (OLT.RO), saw its stock jump almost 15% on the day, to RON0.921, on a traded value of RON6.6 million.

Other popular stock Wednesday included SIF Oltenia (SIF5.RO), which rose 0.37% to RON1.345, BRD-Groupe Societe Generale (BRD.RO), which dropped 0.35% to RON14.15, and Banca Transilvania (TLV.RO), which fell 1.28% to RON1.16. (EUR1=RON4.129)