Buchares Stock Exchange stocks see new all-time highs

The Bucharest Stock Exchange witnessed a new strong growth due to heavy pressure on buying, with the most liquid stocks going up as much as 3% or 4%. Yesterday”s growth took the main indices gauging the performance of the companies listed on the capital market in Romania to new all time highs.

The BET and BET-FI indices have gained 10-12% since the beginning of the year, a yield that is almost equal to the interest on a banking deposit for two years.

The progress of the market was driven by Petrom and SIF shares, which leapt by 3%-5%, as they were the most traded on the market. Big increases were also registered for the pharmaceutical companies, which gained 4% (Biofarm) and 10% (Antibiotice).

Brokers say that whereas acquisitions by Romanian investors prevailed in the first two days of last week, the last few days have seen substantial and numerous orders coming from non-residents.

“Both foreign and Romanian investors are interested in buying now,” said Dana Ionescu, the chairperson and general manager of the brokerage firm Raiffeisen Capital & Investment (RCI).

The spectacular start of the year for the stock market practically verifies the trend on the developed markets, as both US and European companies witnessed significant growth over the last week, brokers say.

“There is a correlation between the trend on our Stock Exchange and what happens on the developed markets, where statements from Fed officials suggested that benchmark rate increases will occur more rarely, which induced a state of optimism among investors on the capital market. This is because some investment funds are known to direct money to other markets under such circumstances, and especially to emerging markets,” stated Liviu Giugumica, manager of brokerage company BRD Securities.

More and more brokers and analysts are saying that some of the top stocks have now come close to their real value on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

“I believe one has to see the nuances to this. The investors” vision changes with time. As long as the Romanian companies can provide better yields than other similar companies on other markets, they can be seen as attractive, even though they are quoted at prices that can be deemed as ?”high”. Buying them can be justified or not; it is all up to each investor”s perception,” Giugumica feels.

Despite some brokers saying that SIFs, for instance, are now evaluated at prices close to their “real” value, RCI analysts believe that these shares are actually being traded with a 25-30% discount on their “real” price.

“Considering BCR”s value, we believe that the correct value of the SIFs is 25-30% above the current prices. We believe this calculation to be conservative, given that we have taken into account discounts of 25% for BCR”s net asset value and 15% for the net assets of the other companies in the SIFs” portfolios. Regardless, one needs to consider that Erste pledged to grant 40% of the net profit in dividends to the SIFs,” Dana Ionescu added. catalin.ciocan@zf.ro