Stock Exchange in crisis again

The BET index of the ten leading companies on the Bucharest Stock Exchange fell below 5,000 points, the level reached during capital markets’ bleakest time in recent history, i.e. when Lehman Brothers collapsed in the autumn of 2008. Whereas last month the BET index had managed to exceed 6,000 points, bringing a bit more money into investors’ pockets, four weeks of strain on the foreign markets were enough to empty investors’ accounts once again.

The volatility of the BET index, calculated as an average of absolute variations of the last 30 sessions, is now at 2.2%, higher than the level recorded at the time of the resounding bankruptcy of the American investment bank in September 2008. Similarly, the American market’s volatility index (VIX) has soared in the past month, exceeding the 40-point mark, considered by investors on the capital market as very high. Over the last few months, VIX had fallen below 20 points.