How Romanian leu beat Bourse growth: BSE's net income, down 11%

Leu appreciation has brought the first financial losses for the BSE and wiped out the operating income increase brought by rising transactions on the Bourse.

The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), the main bourse operator on the Romanian capital market, saw turnover rise by 34.1% to 5.97m lei in the first quarter of this year, a period during which the value of stock transactions climbed to three-year highs owing to FP floatation and also on the rising prices of listed stock. The BET index has gained 12% since the start of the year.

The Bourse cut its expenses by 4.8% to 2.97m lei in Q1 and reported a 127% increase in operating income to 3m lei.

The Bourse operator saw operating revenues go up by 34.1% as the value of stock transactions surged by 50% from the same interval of last year to 756.6m euros, bringing higher fee revenues.

Nevertheless, BSE’s first quarter net income is 11% lower than in the first quarter of 2010. The main cause is related to financial losses. In the first three months, the BSE posted 0.38m lei financial losses on leu growth. In other words, the financial investments of the Bourse fell in terms of value in the first quarter of the year.