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The Romanian capital market started 2023 with a series of significant rallies in the BET index reflecting the developments in the 20 most traded stocks and the BET-TR, which also includes dividends, according to a report by the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).
"The stocks floated on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) included in these indices closed the first month of 2023 on a 4% growth. The BET index closed the last trading session at 12,139 points, and the BET-TR at 23,611 points. In fact, in January all the BVB indices were up, except for BET-FI, which had a 1% decrease."
According to BVB, the biggest surge was recorded by the index that includes the energy companies, BET-NG climbing 6%. The positive developments in the capital market come after a year 2022 marked by volatility and uncertainties. The Romanian capital market witnessed new all-time highs in 2022 in terms of total trade value, average daily liquidity, and number of trades, told Agerpres.
Thus, BVB reached a new record in 2022 in terms of the total value of trades carried out on all markets in all types of financial instruments after total transactions exceeded RON 24 billion, up 11% from 2021.
Also in 2022, the average daily trading liquidity for all types of financial instruments floated on the Regulated Market (RM) and the Multilateral Trading System (MTS) increased by 11% to RON 95.6 million.
"Investors reported a new record in 2022 in terms of the number of trades in all types of financial instruments carried out onRM and MTS: 1.67 million. At the same time, international uncertainties led to market declines of 10.7% for the BET index and 1.9% for the BET-TR index at the end of 2022."
The number of investors in the capital market of Romania continued to grow to 133,000 at the end of 2022, according to data with the Investment Compensation Fund (FCI).
"By comparison, at the end of 2021, there were almost 82,000 investors. This is a 62% increase in just one year. Moreover, the figure of 133,000 investors represents a new all-time high for the capital market in Romania. Moreover, 133,000 investors is a new all-time high for the capital market in Romania In a difficult regional and international context, in 2022, 42 funding rounds were carried out on the BVB. The total value of last year's funding rounds reached EUR 1.9 billion, very close to the 2021 maximum of EUR 2 billion. In the last four years, 149 funding rounds took place at the BVB that totalled EUR 6.1 billion. Out of the 149 rounds, 38 were equity issues and 111 were bond issues."
In terms of listings, 2023 at BVB started with the listing of a new issue of corporate bonds worth RON 490 million.
"The capital market started the year very well as reflected by the price appreciation of many listed companies, with the BET index going up by 4%. The funding rounds carried out through the capital market continue, we already saw a first listing this year for corporate bonds worth almost half a billion lei, and we have clear signals that several companies are preparing to go public. Romania has taken steps to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the successful completion of this course will bring added value to all Romanian companies who will understand that through better corporate governance they can have access to important resources of capital held by international investors," according to Radu Hanga, BVB Chairman.
BVB Dircetor General Adrian Tanase is quoted as saying that a series of concrete projects to improve the relationship with investors and increase the liquidity of the companies listed on the stock exchange have already been started this year.
"Together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), we launched the 'Investor Relations and Liquidity Support Programme,' and we have recently added a section for individual investors to the BVB Research platform. The official request for the authorisation of the Central Counterparty (CCP)was submitted to the Financial Oversight Authority, an application containing over 150 documents accompanied by their translations into English. We are following the steps that are required by the regulations and finally this application will be evaluated by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Our target is the operationalisation of the CCP in the fourth quarter of 2023."
BVB became increasingly visible in the public space, both as an issuer and as a market and system operator, through the capital market promotion projects it initiated and continued to develop. After a rebranding in 2021, when it adopted a new visual identity, in 2022 BVB celebrated 140 years since the establishment of the first stock exchange in Romania.
"The anniversary was organised under the High Patronage of the President of Romania. The Central Counterparty project has entered a technical stage of implementation and authorisation, and the first derivative products will be available on the capital market in 2023. The Made in Romania project, launched in 2017 by BVB to promote Romanian companies, is now in its 5th edition, and since the beginning of the programme, 16 companies have listed shares or bonds on the stock exchange, with their funding rounds exceeding EUR 212 million," according to BVB.
More than 70 reports were published in 2022 alone under the BVB Research Hub project, a tool designed to improve coverage of analyses and reports for local issuers and increasing access to fundamental analysis for local investors. ESG scores for 11 listed companies are also available on bvbresearch.ro.
As part of the efforts to promote Romania as a regional finances hub, BVB and maib, the largest bank in Moldova, jointly held the first high-level forum "Moldova - Romania: Capital bridges," in Bucharest, and the conference "Accessing international capital markets," in Chisinau to promote capital market opportunities.
The developments in the Romanian capital market have been internationally acknowledged by the global index provider FTSE Russell, with Romania being promoted to Emerging Market in 2020. Currently, there are 13 Romanian companies included in the Emerging Markets indices, and among these companies, there is also BVB as an issuer, a company listed on its own market since 2010.
