The resumed increase of stocks on the capital market once the autumn season started has led more and more Romanian investors to direct their attention and money towards the main stock market in the country, which showed in the ranking of brokers on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
Last month witnessed record of purchases being made by resident investors on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with Romanians buying more than 697.5 million RON (193.8 million euros) worth of stocks.
The previous high had been recorded in February, when strong growth on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the wide coverage of this phenomenon by the media drove more and more Romanians to the capital market, even more so given the downward trend of interest rates on banking deposits.
ING Securities brokers, that held the number one position in the ranking of brokers over the last few months, maintained their position in October, though some of the companies that are working mostly with Romanian customers have come very close to the position occupied by ING. ING”s share of the total transactions went down from 11.3% in September to 7.9%, while the next three companies in the ranking, Eastern Securities, Eldainvest and BT Securities achieved shares of 7.29%, 6.68% and 6.54%.
Eastern Securities” position in second place is largely due to their conducting of transactions for some of the companies in the Rompetrol group, one of their long-term clients.
A number of large transactions involving shares in Rompetrol Rafinare (Petromidia), which is part of the Rompetrol group, controlled by Dinu Patriciu, were conducted on the Bucharest Stock Exchange last month. Therefore Rompetrol Financial Group, a company established by Dinu Patriciu to avoid complications with the fiscal reporting of The Rompetrol Group NV Netherlands, sold a 0.95% stake in Rompetrol Rafinare, for which it got 6.3 million euros. Rompetrol Financial Group later bought more than 1.15% in Petromidia, for which it paid over 7.6 million euros, with the seller in this deal being the majority shareholder of this company, Rompetrol Group. catalin.ciocan@zf.ro