The shockwave generated by the 10% drop of the Chinese capital market in one day, caused over one billion euros from the accounts of the shareholders of the companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange to evaporate last week.
BSE's capitalisation reached 22.7 billion euros at the end of last week compared with almost 24 billion euros a week before.
The losses on the BSE are but small change compared with those on the international markets - put at 1,000 dollars (about 740 billion euros) for the day the market in China collapsed, with decline continuing afterwards.
It started with a statement from the Chinese officials who said they were going to take steps against unlawful practices on the capital market of the country, which, however, had contributed to the increases in the value of the shares over the last few years. The Chinese shares generated an average yield of over 100% last year.
The decline that followed the statements of the Chinese officials spread quickly to Hong Kong and Singapore, and then reached the European and American markets. The US markets that had been going strength to strength for a few months, had their worst week, second only to the week that followed the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.
Although the vast majority of the international markets reacted during the same day, the Bucharest Stock Exchange did not show signs of affliction at first. Most shares, except for SIFs, closed the Tuesday session with sound growth. The decline started in Bucharest on Wednesday, when the foreign markets were showing signs of a rebound. After the prices on the Bucharest Stock Exchange had somewhat stabilised on Thursday, the last day of the week came with a new wave of decline, in tune with the international markets.
Some of the most affected shares on the domestic market were the SIFs, which usually are the most sensitive to the news on the market, be they positive or negative. The SIF market is dominated by Romanian investors, with a higher appetite for speculations, given that no one may hold more than 1% in the capital of these companies. The biggest loser last week was SIF Banat-Crisana. In its case, the general market decline overlapped with the proposal to disburse dividends from last year's profit instead of bonus shares like some investors had hoped it would. SIF Banat-Crisana lost 12.5% of its value last week, followed by SIF Moldova and SIF Oltenia, each with over 10% decline.
The biggest listed company, Petrom, which has been among the most stable shares on the market since the beginning of the year, ended last week at 0.5750 RON/share, the lowest price this year. This price was 2.5% below the closing price on Thursday. Petrom lost 4.2% last week, one of the smallest marginal decreases on the market. Only Banca Transilvania and Antibiotice witnessed smaller declines than Petrom.
Brokers' opinions on the profile of the investors that sold last week are quite different. While some said that some of the local investors panicked and sold, others said that it was probably some of the more speculative foreign funds that did it.
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