Romania's capital market has entered a new stage of maturity in 2025, recording healthy growth supported by liquidity, a broader investor base and listed companies, President of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) Radu Hanga told AGERPRES.
"2025 confirms that Romania's capital market has entered a new stage of maturity. We are not talking about exuberance, but about healthy growth, backed by liquidity, an ever-expanding base of investors and listed companies which deliver performance and solid governance. The number of retail investors has increased more than fivefold in the past six years, from around 54,000 in 2019 to 274,000 by the end of September 2025, which reflects a growing public participation in the capital market. This expansion of the investor base has also translated into increased interest from companies and the state in raising finance via the stock exchange. Over the past five years, more than 280 listings of shares, corporate bonds and government securities have been completed, with a total value of around 19.5 billion euros, confirming the Bucharest Stock Exchange's increasingly important role as a financing mechanism for the economy. We see stronger involvement from Romanian investors, diversification of financial instruments and a real capacity of the market to support large projects, including in the energy transition and sustainability sectors. All these create the foundations for structural, not cyclical, growth," Radu Hanga said.
Radu Hanga anticipates that the consolidation trend of the Bucharest Stock Exchange will continue in the coming period.
According to the BVB representatives, 2025 is shaping up as a reference year for Romania's capital market, both for its financial performance and its symbolic significance.
In November, the Bucharest Stock Exchange celebrated 30 years of activity and on 20 November 2025, it marked 30 years since the first transaction on the BVB following the reopening of Romania's capital market in 1995. This historic milestone was reached in a year in which the local market demonstrated maturity, resilience and growth capacity amid a complex economic and political context.
The BET index, the BVB's main benchmark, reached record highs, registering a rise of around 43 percent compared with the end of 2024, marking the best annual growth rate in the past 16 years. The 2025 performance is exceeded only by the recovery in 2009, following the severe corrections of 2008.
Meanwhile, the BET-TR index, which includes dividends distributed by the companies in the BET composition, rose by more than 52 percent, recording its best annual performance since its launch in 2014. The development highlights the importance of dividends and the stability of cash flows generated by companies listed on the BVB.
In 2025, Romania's capital market grew faster than major international exchanges, including Wall Street. This momentum is explained by a combination of local factors: the increase of the number of Romanian investors, the predominantly domestic profile of listed companies, public policies favourable to the capital market and the continuous development of investment products.
At regional level, the BET-TR ranks among the top total return indices, alongside exchanges such as Prague and Warsaw, confirming the relevance of Romania's market in Central and Eastern Europe.
A defining feature of 2025 is that performance was not concentrated in a small number of issuers. Of the 20 companies in the BET index, only two shares were below their level at the end of the previous year by mid-December. Several companies recorded significant gains, reshuffling the index hierarchy and reflecting a combination of solid financial results, investments and investor confidence. This broader distribution of returns indicates a deeper and better-structured market.
Liquidity remained high throughout 2025. The average daily value of equity trading reached around 67.9 million lei, placing the year second in market history in terms of liquidity. Romanian investors, both retail and institutional, played an essential role in this development. The number of retail investors continued to grow, exceeding 274,000 accounts by the end of September, almost five times higher than at the end of 2019.
This year, 95 funding rounds were completed on the BVB, with a total value of 5.4 billion euros.
The first part of the year was marked by domestic political uncertainty, driven by the presidential elections and government instability. During this period, the BVB temporarily decoupled from the upward trend of regional markets. After the political context clarified, the market recovered quickly. In the two weeks following the second round of the presidential elections, the BET index rose by more than 12 percent, while the market capitalisation of listed companies increased by over 20 billion lei, confirming the market's capacity to absorb political shocks.
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