At the end of October 2022, BET increased by 1.5% MoM, while on a YTD basis, it decreased by 17.3%, ending October at 10,802.67 points.
The Bucharest Stock Exchange has published its monthly trading data for October 2022. In it, Stock Exchange highlighted that the number of direct investors at the BVB is continuously increasing for the 11th consecutive quarter and reached 128,000 investors for the first time. Further, in the first 10 months of 2022, over 1.43 million transactions were made with all types of financial instruments. At the same time, the total equity turnover amounted to EUR 2.1bn in the first ten months (+24.2% YoY), which translates into a daily trading turnover of EUR 10m.
The higher levels of trading and volatility can currently be recorded on equity markets across the world. The current situation in Ukraine is by far affecting the commodity market (and by extension energy prices) the most, causing inflation. Considering that several of the largest companies listed on the BVB are energy production companies, this increased trading volume is not surprising.
However, the end of October recorded worse performance on the BVB, as the BET-TR index ended October 31, declining by 9.1% compared to the end of the last year, which is a result of strong performance achieved in 2021 when the BET-TR increased by as much as 40%, so correction territory should not surprise. Further, the BET-NG index (which tracks energy and related activities), decreased by 7.7% in the first ten months of trading due to the very high base, as this index noted the biggest increase in price in the previously observed periods.
Moving on to the companies which constitute the largest Romanian Index, BVB, only 5 out of 20 companies decreased during the month, but at the same time, a lot of the companies remained quite stable at +/- 2%. Looking at the companies themselves, Teraplast recorded the largest relative increase, growing by 9.9% MoM, followed by Petrom, which increased by 8.1% MoM. Further, Alro noted an increase of 8% during October. On the other hand, Nuclearelectrica decreased by 5.4%, Romgaz by 4.1%, Transgaz by 3.4%, while Digi decreased by 2.9%. The YTD decreases in financial companies (Banca Transilvania, BRD) can be attributed to the current macroeconomic situation in Romania, and especially the inflation rate, which hit 15.3% in October, still an increase YoY. To combat this, the Central Bank has been increasing the interest rates, which again, affects the profitability of financial institutions.
Performance of BET constituents in October 2022 (%)
In total, the BET index ended the month at 12,802.67 points, which is an increase of 1.5% MoM, and a decline of 17.3% YTD.
