Bucharest Stocks Close Up, SIF Banat-Crisana Falls 9%

04.24.2013 By Bogdan Neagu

The Bucharest stock market grew slightly Wednesday in a relatively quiet session, but SIF Banat-Crisana (SIF1.RO) lost 9.2% after the investment fund’s shareholders decided against dividend payment in a general meeting earlier today.

The bourse’s BET index rose 0.69% from Tuesday closing level, while composite index BET-C was up 0.51%.

SIF Banat-Crisana’s decline dragged the BET-FI index, which tracks the regional investment funds SIFs and Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO), 2.36% lower on the day. Proprietatea inched 0.2%, to 0.6585 lei (EUR0.15) a share, but all SIFs posted large decreases. SIF Moldova (SIF2.RO) fell 3.2%, while SIF Transilvania (SIF3.RO) and SIF Muntenia (SIF4.RO) ended down 2.8% and 2.5%, respectively.

Bucharest benchmark index BET-BK closed down 0.73%, and BET-XT was 0.37% lower.

On the other hand, energy stocks tracker BET-NG rose 0.32%, supported by OMV Petrom’s (SNP.RO) 2.2%. Transelectrica (TEL.RO) also closed up, gaining 3.1%, but Transgaz (TGN.RO) fell 2.3%.

Traded values remained reduced, as share deals amounted to RON17.1 million (EUR3.9 million), down 9% on the day. Fondul Proprietatea covered almost half of the turnover, as transfers with its shares amounted to RON7.7 million. Transactions with structured products worth RON3.3 million lifted the bourse’s overall traded value to RON20.5 million (EUR4.7 million). (EUR1=RON4.3485)