ROL plunges, dealers say it will get better

The ROL witnessed significant depreciation in the last day of last week, both against the euro and against the dollar. The euro was valued at 38,584 ROL by the National Bank on Friday, 586 ROL more than the previous rate. The dollar gained 363 units, with the rate moving up to 29,686 ROL.

The dealers, however, see the ROL recovering over the next few days, as companies will have payments to the state budget to make, and therefore have to exchange foreign currency for ROL.

The single European currency gained 1,208 ROL in only three sessions (from the low registered on Tuesday). The dollar was even faster to move as it had gained 1,099 ROL on Friday compared with the low on Wednesday. Its appreciation was also fuelled by the decline in the euro/dollar rate on the international markets.

The interbank forex market opened at 38,440/38,450 ROL/EUR, higher than at the previous day’s close. The first few hours saw foreign currency sales, with the market feeling the ROL was going up. Rates therefore went down to the day’s low of 37,810/37,910 ROL/EUR. Shortly after that, the euro was up at 38,000 ROL, at which level it traded for a longer period of time. Substantial buy orders were then placed, which caused the gradual appreciation of the euro. Rates went up to 38,550/38,650 EUR/EUR. The euro had appreciated at 38,600/38,700 ROL by the session’s close.

“The market was very agitated on Friday, and the volumes traded remained substantial. I was expecting the exchange rate to go down, given the upcoming payments to the budget. A major buyer probably came up that felt this was an attractive level. I expect the ROL to appreciate over the next few days,” a dealer commented. The spread (the gap between the sell quotes and buy quotes) rose again, to 150-200 ROL at the end of the day.

The market registered a 20 million-euro deficit on Thursday, due to sales of 129 million euros to clients. Interbank operations increased nearly two times the average of the previous days, to 524 million euros, setting the record for traded volumes since the beginning of the year. liviu.chiru@zf.ro