Fondul Proprietatea Ends Up 1.7%, But Bucharest Stocks Lose Steam

09.27.2013 By Bogdan Neagu

The shares of Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) extended their growth Friday, but the rest of the Bucharest bourse was mostly stagnant due to lack of buyers’ interest.

Proprietatea closed at 0.7625 lei (EUR0.17) per share, up 1.7% on the day, after it traded at an all-time high of RON0.765 in early session.

Interest for Proprietatea stock reinvigorated this week after the fund announced an accelerated buyback program for 600 million shares. The share price reached new highs in consecutive sessions, and traded values increased as well.

Trades with the fund’s shares amounted Friday to RON24.2 million, more than 80% of the bourse’s traded value of RON29.2 million (EUR6.5 million).

The only other issuer that surpassed the RON1 million mark today was OMV Petrom (SNP.RO), whose shares closed at RON0.4475, down 0.6%, after transfers worth RON1.1 million.

The stock exchange’s main indexes ended almost unchanged from Thursday closing levels, with BET inching down 3.01 points, or 0.05%, to 6,066.16. Composite index BET-C was down a mere 0.22 points, or 0.01%, at 3,189.87.

BET-FI benefitted the most of Proprietatea’s advance, ending at 27,018.88 points, up 0.59% from Thursday, even with three of the regional investment funds (SIFs) ending in negative territory. SIF Transilvania (SIF3.RO) fell 0.65%, while SIF Banat-Crisana (SIF1.RO) and SIF Moldova (SIF2.RO) were down 0.3% and 0.1% respectively. However, SIF Oltenia (SIF5.RO) rose 0.9% and SIF Muntenia (SIF4.RO) inched 0.1% higher.

Bucharest benchmark index BET-BK was up 0.13%, but energy stocks tracker BET-NG closed down 0.06%.

Despite the lackluster session, the Bucharest stock exchange stays close to its highest levels in two years, as BET-C gained 3.5% in the previous fours sessions of this week. (EUR1=RON4.4603)