Petrom rises by 360m euros on Bucharest Stock Exchange

The shares of OMV Petrom (SNP), the largest Romanian company,
climbed by an unexpected 9% in yesterday’s session, amid a trading
volume of 1.8 million euros, the highest in six months.
The company’s capitalisation therefore rose by 360 million
euros to 4.39 billion euros.
Erste Bank also announced yesterday it had increased its
target price for Petrom shares from 0.31 RON to 0.32 RON. On the
Stock Exchange SNP shares closed at 0.317 RON.
The increase surprised the entire market, considering that the
company has not released any official report over the last few days
likely to generate such a reaction among investors, with brokers
saying it was generated by the progress achieved in negotiations
between Austrian-held OMV and Government representatives on an
around 1 billion-euro capital increase that the company intends to
carry out this year. “I think several factors are involved: the
discussion on a prospective capital increase, a slight rise in the
interest in Romanian shares, as well as the fact that SNP shares
had failed to see a spectacular rise of late. The price rise was
amplified by speculators and by the low liquidity,” explained
Razvan Pasol, president of Intercapital Invest.