Foreigners investor net sales: 56m euros in January

Foreign investors’ net sales amounted to 56 million euros in January, accounting for a quarter of the sum placed on the Romanian market in 2007, according to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). Foreigners’ sales were considered to be the main cause of the Stock Exchange declines registered last month when the capitalisation of companies listed on the regulated market dropped by around 5.7 billion euros. Therefore, for every euro withdrawn from the market by foreign funds, the capitalisation dropped by 100 euros. “What happened in January is not surprising. Foreign capital outflows are amplified on the market by two factors: low liquidity and a reduced amount of free-float, which account for less than a third of the overall capitalisation. These factors led foreigners’ sales to have a greater impact on the market,” explained Florin Ilie, manager of the capital markets department of ING Bank.