Bucharest Stock Exchange, one of the most underdeveloped in Europe

The capitalisation of the companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange accounts for merely 8.6% of GDP, a percentage that put us on the third place from the bottom of the ranking of 34 European countries. The low market capitalisation compared to the size of the economy reveals how poorly developed the capital market in Romania is relative to other European markets. The capitalisation/GDP index is lower than Romania’s only in two of the 34 European countries included in the analysis, Slovakia and Latvia, according to brokerage firm Intercapital Invest. The indicator also reveals that Romania’s economy is actually poorly represented on the Stock Exchange, with only four of the 50 biggest private companies by turnover in 2008 being listed. In the thirteen-year history of the Romanian stock market there have been only 19 initial public offerings, one year’s worth on other stock markets in Europe. The only important state-owned enterprises listed, Transgaz and Transelectrica were floated quite recently, in 2008 and 2006, but the IPOs conducted by the state have failed to push Romania out of the ranking of the least developed European capital markets.