BET index overshoots 10,000-point mark for the first time

The BET index (Bucharest Exchange Trading), the main indicator on the progression of Stock Exchange shares exceeded the 10,000-point mark for the first time yesterday, a ten-fold increase after ten years. The BET was launched by the Stock Exchange in September 1997, when its value stood at 1,000 points. The BET’s function is to track leading shares listed on the Stock Exchange. Reaching the 10,000-point level is a winning bet for those who invested on the Stock Exchange without seeing significant profits before 2000-2001. Over the last five years, the Stock Exchange has become one of the most profitable investment options given the economic growth, the reduction in inflation and accession to the European Union. In the ten years that have passed since the launch of the index, the market has witnessed the listing of the main companies that are now being targeted by both Romanian and foreign investors including SIFs (financial investment companies), Petrom, BRD and Banca Transilvania. On the other hand, many companies which are representative of the domestic economy, such as Dacia Renault, Banca Agricola (the current Raiffeisen Bank), Lafarge Romcim, Terapia Cluj and Arctic Gaesti, exited the market, primarily due to permissive legislation that was in force in the early 2000s. The value of many of these companies could have exceeded the 1 billion-euro mark by now, and the domestic market could have been competing on an equal footing with other foreign markets (e.g. the Hungarian or Polish markets) in terms of capitalisation and the daily value of transactions.