Shares Open Upwards, SIFs Lag Behind

05.17.2011 By Andrei Circhelan

The Bucharest bourse opened Tuesday on an upward trend, inching above par within the first hour of trading, while the five regional investment funds, or SIFs, were still in the red.

At around GMT0735, the Bucharest Stock Exchange's composite index BET-C was inching down 0.07%, while 10-share blue-chip index BET was up 0.09%.

BET-FI, the index tracking investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) and the SIFs was falling 0.06%.

The BET Extended index, or BET-XT, which tracks the top 25 blue-chip stock, was rising 0.14%, while energy companies tracker BET-NG was up 0.1%.

Trades unfolded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange by GMT0740 amounted to 3.15 million lei (EUR767,000), higher than RON1.3 million around the same time in the previous session.

Popular stock early Tuesday included Fondul Proprietatea, Banca Transilvania (TLV.RO), SIF Moldova (SIF2.RO), Azomures (AZO.RO) and Alro Slatina (ALR.RO). (EUR1=RON4.1054)