Bucharest Shares Open Up, Oltchim Jumps Another 15%

05.27.2011 By Andrei Cîrchelan

The Bucharest bourse opened up Friday, supported by a surge in chemical stocks, with Oltchim (OLT.RO) continuing its past days' rally, joined by Amonil (AMO.RO) and Azomures (AZO.RO).

Oltchim, Amonil and Azomures stocks were all rising almost 15%, the maximum variation admitted by the stock exchange's rules.

The bourse's positive trend was also supported by Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO), which is looking to consolidate the rebound in the previous session, whose stock was up 0.4% in early trade Friday, and the five regional investment funds, or SIFs, which were up more than 1% on average.

At around 10:48 local time (GMT0748), the Bucharest Stock Exchange's composite index BET-C was up 0.44%, while the main index BET was rising 0.5%.

BET-FI, the index tracking the Proprietatea fund and the SIFs, was up 1.06%.

The BET Extended index, or BET-XT, which tracks the top 25 blue-chips, was up 0.97%, while energy companies index BET-NG was up 0.94%.

Trades unfolded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange by 10:52 am amounted to 8.45 million lei (EUR2 million). (EUR1=RON4.1333)