Bucharest Shares Open Down, SIFs Shed More Than 2%

05.23.2011 ZF English

The Bucharest-listed shares were down in early trade Monday, following the international markets that were on a downward path, after ratings agency Standard & Poor's said it has downgraded Italy's outlook to negative.

At around 10:52 local time (GMT0752), the Bucharest stock exchange's composite index BET-C was down 0.6%, while the main index BET was losing 0.8%.

The five regional investment funds SIFs were losing between 2% and 3.5%, while Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) was falling 0.8%, which kept the BET-FI index down only 2%.

The extended blue-chip index BET-XT, was down 1.2%, while energy stocks tracker BET-NG was losing 0.55%.

However, the traded values were reduced, with total trades of only 3.6 million lei (almost EUR0.9 million) in the first hour, including transactions with futures and structured products.

Financial stock trades were in focus, with the list of most-traded issuers including Proprietatea fund, the SIFs, and Banca Transilvania (TLV.RO). (EUR1=RON4.1091)