Radu Hanga, BVB President: “We have exceeded the most optimistic expectations in the first six months”

The capital market is becoming more and more attractive for Romanian entrepreneurial businesses, which use the stock market to boost their growth. The first half of the year brought to the stock market 12 new equity issues: a company listed on the Regulated Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) and 11 listed on the Multilateral Trading Segment of BVB. The total value of the equity stakes that were listed on the stock market in the first 6 months exceeded 77 million in EUR equivalent. Also in the first half of this year, 16 new financial instruments were listed on the fixed income segment: 7 on the Regulated Market and 9 on the Multilateral Trading System. The total value of the issues of bonds listed on BVB from January to June was 3.1 billion in RON equivalent or 633 million in EUR equivalent. In the first six months, the issues of equity and bonds listed on BVB exceeded EUR 700 million.

“We have exceeded the most optimistic expectations in the first six months: 28 financial instruments were listed on the stock exchange, both in the equity and bonds segments. The success of these rounds of financing fuels future success, strengthens the position of the capital market as an essential pillar of financing, and encourages the presence of companies and investors on the stock market. Essentially, the first semester can be summarized as follows: more issuers, more diversity, more effervescence. Why is the capital market so successful? Because it is accessible, efficient, and liquid. It has become much more accessible due to the degree of digitization, it is efficient because it allows easy access to capital and it is liquid because the seller or buyer easily finds a counterpart. In addition, the stock market is increasingly present in the public space and has become a go-to landmark when it comes to serious development plans,” said Radu Hanga, President of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

“The stock market is currently offering considerable sectoral diversification for investors who want to disperse their risks, and the investment opportunities are striking. From companies with a solid history to companies with accelerated growth potential, from fixed income instruments to equity and structured products, the current market configuration allows the creation of portfolios with a high degree of customization that corresponds to the risk profiles of investors. In terms of listings, we witnessed accelerated growth in the stock segment in the first half of the year. The new wave of entrepreneurial companies, 12 only in the first 6 months, that came to the stock market attracted substantial interest from individual investors, who understood to take advantage of the existing opportunities and oversubscribed the allocated tranches, in some cases even less than a minute. The stock market has come closer to people and companies, and recent results show that we are developing the market in the right direction,” stated Adrian Tanase, CEO of BVB.

The average daily liquidity for all types of financial instruments increased by 54% in the first six months compared to the first half of the previous year, from RON 35.6 million (equivalent to EUR 7.4 million) to RON 54.9 million (equivalent to EUR 11.1 million). Stock market liquidity measured in terms of the total trading value increased by 41% for all types of financial instruments, from RON 6 billion (EUR 1.25 billion) in the first six months of 2020 to RON 8.5 billion (EUR 1.7 billion) in the first half of this year.

The growth of investment activity led the capital market to new highs in June. In the trading session of June 28th, the BET index reached an all-time high of 11,967 points, while the BET-TR index displayed a new record of 20,784 points. The month of June continued the monthly series of increases with a surge of 3.9% for BET and 5% for BET-TR. After the first 6 months of the year, BET increased by 21% and BET-TR by 24.9%.

The capitalization of the local companies listed on BVB has gone above the pre-pandemic level. Thus, the Romanian companies listed on the Main Market of BVB have reached a market value of RON 123 billion or EUR 25 billion.