FROM AGONY TO BLISS: The Bucharest Stock Exchange rises more than 10%, mimicking foreign markets

• Darie Moldovan: "We don"t usually see more than two such sessions a year on the BSE"

Euphoria was the key word yesterday in the Bucharest Stock Exchange, which had one of the most spectacular recoveries in the last year and a half, contaminated by the enthusiasm of foreign markets spurred by the news that the European Union has set up a EUR 750 billion plan intended to ensure the stability of the Eurozone. Yesterday"s recovery comes on the heels of last year"s drop, when the indexes of the Bucharest Stock Exchange dropped more than 14%.

"The decision of the European Union to complete the plan to rescue the Eurozone had a positive impact on the foreign markets and implicitly on the Bucharest Exchange", says Marcel Murgoci, head of trading at "Estinvest", who mentioned: "A large number of people who opened trades on Thursday and Friday closed them today (ed. note: Monday). Most likely everything will settle down and this storm in a teacup will end".

The largest riser was the BET-FI index, which rose 13.57% to 27,914.61 points, whereas the market"s composite index gained 9.69%, to 3,264.38 points. The BET index, which tracks the evolution of the ten most liquid stocks on the BSE, yesterday climbed 11%, to 5,454.83 points.

"Last week, BET-C lost 14%, and yesterday it clawed back 9%, making back almost all of last week"s drop. However the10% rise of the BET-C index is not sustainable. Had it grown by just 3-4%, there would have been nothing shady, but as it stands, I expect a slight correction", said Alina Udrea, financial analyst with brokerage firm "Active International". In his opinion yesterday"s session was "atypical".

"Broker" Cluj (symbol: BRK) and "Condmag" Braşov (symbol: COMI) were among the most heavily traded stocks on yesterday"s trading session, causing for their fluctuation limit to be raised to 25%.

"The two stocks met the requirements for the raising of the variation limit, namely, there were no sellers for 15 minutes. If the surveillance of stocks traded on the BSE of the covered the shares traded on the BSE had extended past 4 o"clock PM, perhaps something similar could have happened with the stocks of SIF4 and SIF5", said Marcel Murgoci, of "Estinvest".

Stocks of COMI yesterday closed 20% higher, at 0.76 lei, whereas BRK rose 17.22%, to 0.32 lei/share.

"Yesterday we saw a recovery after last week"s steep drop. Given the volatility and panic of last week, it was only natural the bounce back would be just as violent", says Darie Moldovan, of "Broker" Cluj, who continued: "I don"t know whether there are more than two days in a year when we get such a day on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. I recall a similar session one year and a half ago".

Yesterday"s most heavily traded stocks included SIF5 "Oltenia" (over 11 million shares traded). Turnover of "Dafora" Mediaş came a distant second (7 million shares).