Bucharest Shares Fall, Dragged Down By Petrom

05.10.2011 By Andrei Circhelan

The Bucharest bourse closed down Tuesday, mainly influenced by a 3% decline in OMV Petrom (SNP.RO) shares on ex-dividend sales.

The Bucharest Stock Exchange's composite index BET-C fell 0.78% on the day, to 3,405.11, while the 10-share blue-chip tracker BET closed at 5,734.52, down 0.82% on the day.

Both indexes were held back by their heaviest issuer, oil company OMV Petrom (SNP.RO), which dropped 3.15% on the day, to 0.429 lei (EUR0.105). Tuesday is the ex-dividend date, so that buyers of Petrom stock cannot cash in dividends due from last year's profit.

BET-FI, the index tracking Fondul Proprietatea (FP.

BET-XT, the index tracking the top 25 blue-chips, dropped 0.64% on the day, to 534.86, while the energy companies index, BET-NG, closed at 797.83, down 0.34% on the day.

Trades unfolded Tuesday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange amounted to RON25.66 million, slightly down from RON26.97 million in the previous session.

Proprietatea fund was Tuesday's top-traded issuer. Its shares closed down 2.15%, to RON0.545, on a traded value of RON8.73 million.

The shares of lender Banca Transilvania (TLV.RO), today's second-top traded issuer, fell 0.33% on the day, to RON1.505, after trades worth a total RON3.37 million.

Other popular issuers Tuesday included SIF Muntenia (SIF4.RO), which closed flat at RON0.859 a share, stat-owned power grid operator Transelectrica (TEL.RO), up 4.81% to RON22 per share, and SIF Moldova (SIF2.RO), whose shares fell 0.38% to RON1.31. (EUR1=RON4.0885)