Bucharest Stock Exchange

The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) is the most important Romanian stock exchange.

Opened in 1882, December 1^st, the Bucharest Stock Exchange had from the beginning the role of providing a marketplace for securities transactions and of forming a fair prices to reflect the supply-demand relationship. At first the Bucharest Stock Exchange had 21 securities quoted (6 stocks and 15 commercial paper issues) and there were also trading commodities. Few years later, due to a new law, the securities trading were separated from commodities trading and in 1904 the Bucharest Stock Exchange has 43 quoted securities (21 stocks and 22 commercial papers).

Until after the First World War, the Bucharest Stock Exchange suspended its activity. In 1916, it was reopened with great success because of the increased market capitalization based on the strong investor demand for securities. After a period of strong growth, due to the transportation and banking stocks and the speculation with oil companies' stocks, the Bucharest Stock Exchange felt the effects of the Great Depression, reaching the lowest level in 1932. In 1933, the Bucharest Stock Exchange began its recovery; the prices and the trading volume continued to increase even during the Second World War.

In the beginning of the communist period (1945), the Bucharest Stock Exchange had to stop all its activities. Until 1989, when the Romanian revolution ended the communist era, no one heard more about securities trading. In 1995, the Bucharest Stock Exchange was reopened with weekly trading sessions and only 9 quoted stocks. The building of the National Bank of Romania became the house of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

Trading started to increase in 1997, when the Bucharest Stock Exchange had 76 quoted stocks. One year later, the listed stocks were separated in two tiers and the Bucharest Stock Exchange introduced daily trading. With the National Bank of Romania as the settlement bank, the Bucharest Stock Exchange became stronger. The strong growth in capitalization, the trading volume and stock prices with record levels made the BET index (referring to the most liquid ten stocks) increase by 117.5% in 2002. In 2005, December 1, Rasdaq (Bucharest's electronic over-the-counter stock market) was merged with the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

For the ones who want to use the Bucharest Stock Exchange it is good to know that there are four indices: BET, Bet-C (BET Composite), BET-Fi and ROTX (Romanian Traded Index). Although BET was created first, it is still the most followed index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, showing the evolution of the most liquid ten stocks. BET-C marks the evolution of all listed stocks, excepting Investment Funds. BET-FI indicates the evolution of the five large Investment Funds created in the Mass Privatization Program. ROTX shows the evolution of the most liquid blue chips.

BUCHAREST STOCK EXCHANGE (BSE)

Address: St. Doamnei 8, 70421, Bucharest

Tel.: (+4) 021.315.82.09

Fax: (+4) 021.315.81.49

Email: bvb@bvb.ro

Website: http://www.bvb.ro

Bucharest Stock Exchange

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