Bucharest Stock Exchange hits all-time highs as BET and BET-TR indices go up by 50 percent in one year

The Romanian capital market is breaking record high after record high this year as investors trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) have contributed to the growth of the market to new all-time highs. Romania’s benchmark index, BET, and its equivalent including dividends, BET-TR, reached new all-time highs at the end of the first quarter this year.

For the first time in the 23-year history of the BET index, the threshold of 11,000 points was exceeded. More precisely, in the last trading session from March, BET displayed a level of 11,189 points. The BET-TR index, which also includes the dividends paid by the companies included in the BET index, reached new record levels and continued the rally to 19,000 points. In the trading session of March 31st, it reached the highest level since its establishment: 18,848 points. In the first 3 months of this year, BET and BET-TR indices increased by over 14%. For the last 12 months, the growth rates amounted to 46.7% for BET and to 54.4% for BET-TR. 

“The capital market could become the second source of income after wages. Whoever invests a part of their salary every month can end up accumulating significant financial resources thanks to the returns and dividends offered by the listed companies. In the long run, consistent investment behavior will lead to financial independence in a much faster and more realistic way. To be absent now as an investor in the capital market is like refusing a salary increase, and in the long run such an absence can be far costlier. For companies, gaining access to capital is a natural consequence of their presence in the stock market, but the benefits of being a public company are manifold and on several levels: transparency, corporate governance, market-driven business valuation, increased advertising among investors and in the media, an increased degree of trust among business partners. Being a listed company is a public recognition of the management performance and allows to stimulate employee performance by granting shares through the stock option plan program,” said Radu Hanga, President of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

“We are at all-time highs and there is still a growing interest in the domestic capital market, both from institutional investors and from individual investors. In terms of trading indicators, Romania is one of the cheapest Emerging Markets, and the dividends offered by our market make it even more attractive. The new records reached by BET and BET-TR indices represent a validation given by investors that we are witnessing a strong recovery in terms of the business performance of listed companies, but there are other important parameters through which stock market activity can be interpreted. Increasing market liquidity is a key development goal, we see an increase in the values traded on all instruments this quarter, but improving liquidity conditions, especially in the equity segment, remains one of the main priorities of the Bucharest Stock Exchange,” stated Adrian Tanase, CEO of BVB.

The total value of transactions with all types of financial instruments increased by 30.4% at the end of the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year. On the Regulated Market of BVB, total transactions of RON 4.66 billion were made. Also, during the first quarter, the average daily liquidity with all types of financial instruments amounted to RON 74 million (EUR 15.2 million), increasing by 28.4% compared to the first quarter of the previous year.

The investment activity at BVB continues its upward trend in the first part of 2021, after the record results obtained in 2020 when the investors active on the Romanian stock exchange traded financial instruments totaling RON 18.3 billion, the equivalent of EUR 3.77 billion. It was the highest annual value ever recorded on the main segment of the Romanian stock market and exceeded by almost 25% the previous record from 2007.