Financial companies plunge 7.64% owing to panic on the market spurred by global financial turmoil

Financial companies at the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) collapsed 7.64 percent to a low of the past three and a half years after investors panicked and sold investment funds, fearing effects of the international crisis.

Liquidity increased 60 percent to 4.69 million lei, after in the previous session it stood at 28.75 million lei.

The BET index of the ten power companies on BSE lost 4.27 percent to 4,272.34 and the BET-C composite index measuring all listed shares minus financial companies slipped 3.56 percent to 3,255.73.

The BET-FI index of the five financial companies SIF fell 7.64 percent to 24,536.83, a level last reached in February 2005. The ROTX index for trading blue-chips in Vienna dropped 2.83 percent to 10,617.41.

The BET-XT index of the 25 most liquid companies on BSE plummeted 5.17 percent to 446.61 and the BET-NG index of the ten power companies on BSE dropped 4.91 percent to 613.40.

Investors are still panicked, unsure of how long the crisis will last and what the effects will be. Also, they fear more bankruptcies to follow the recent collapse at the lender Lehman Brothers.

The European commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the length of the crisis is hard to determine, blaming avaricious bankers whom he called responsible of this turmoil.

NewsIn