Foreign investment on the BSE drops

Net foreign investments on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) went down in August for the fourth month in a row. The dwindling interest of foreign investors in the shares traded on the BSE, which brokers were saying they had noticed in terms of transaction trends, has now been confirmed by the BSE statistics.

Moreover, last month was the only month this year, besides April, when non-residents bought less than they sold. The gap between sales and purchases was insignificant, though, reaching 0.15 million euros. In April many investors speculated heavily on the Rompetrol Rafinare shares, whose strong growth was the reason for the higher value of the shares sold than of those bought.

The decline in net foreign investment on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the last few months was due to the dwindling acquisitions of stock, against rather constant sales of around 4 million euros a month. Whereas acquisitions by foreign investors in May stood at 11.4 million euros, that is 27% of the total transactions on the market, the proportion of foreign investors in terms of total acquisitions drooped below 15% for the first time last month. The shares bought by non-residents in August were worth 4.5 million euros. Brokers on the market say that the stagnation of sales by foreign investors should be seen as a good sign, so that investments can pick up in the autumn months.