ING: Romanian stocks have reached reasonable levels

The stock market will see a moderate rise in 2010, after the unprecedented increase of the Stock Exchange last year took stock prices to “reasonable” levels, Adrian Tanase, investment manager of ING Investment Management believes.

“I am neutral to pessimistic when it comes to the trend of the stock market in 2010. I expect the volatility of the stock market to go down in 2010. I believe stocks have reached reasonable prices. I do not expect a significant increase of the market from these levels this year,” Tanase said.

ING Management is the local branch of the asset management division of Dutch group ING. The company manages two mutual funds (ING International Romanian Equity and Romanian Bond), with cumulated net assets worth more than 510 million RON (120 million euros). ING International Romanian Equity had a 120 million RON exposure to the local stock market at the end of November, double the level at the end of 2008, with the main interests being the shares of Banca Transilvania, of BRD and of Petrom. With 200 million RON in assets, Romanian Equity posted 55% annual yield at the end of November.

Adrian Tanase, the man who manages more than 500 million RON through two ING funds says the performance of the local stock market in 2010 will depend on the decisions of the Government to reboot the economy and on how the fiscal deficit will be managed.

ING Investment Management is one of the biggest asset managers on the local market, competing with Erste Asset Management, the leader of the market with 1.5 billion RON in assets and Raiffeisen Asset Management, with net assets worth slightly more than 1 billion RON, which ranks third.

Equity fund Romanian Equity, with over 200 million RON (47 million euros) in assets and a local exposure of 120 million RON (28 million euros) was one of the top investors on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in 2008, at a time when most local and foreign equity funds were selling in order to reduce exposure.