Foreign markets fuel bout of optimism on BSE

The Stock Exchange rebounded yesterday, when it witnessed a 3% increase of the BET index, amid an extremely volatile session, during which the indices even plunged at some point.

The SIFs (financial investment companies) rose by 3.7% on the average, after having gone down by almost 5% in the first part of the day and having lost 7.9% the day before. The traded volumes were significant, exceeding 12 million euros in the case of shares.

Brokers say portfolio investors continued to sell at the beginning of the session, but the optimism induced by the rebound of the foreign stock markets brought buyers back.

"Today (yesterday i.e.) some issuers were completely unbalanced in terms of supply and demand. As soon as a few significant buy orders came, sellers would topple the market. Still, the market may rebound over the coming period," says Marcel Murgoci, trading manager of EstInvest brokerage firm.

Non-resident individuals, who are usually represented by investment funds, took out 6.7 million euros from the Bucharest Stock Exchange in April, which overlapped with the first declines of the market this year. The SIFs have plummeted since then, by more than 30% in six weeks, and as such were among the worst hit on the market.