Romania's financial sector jumps 15% on the BSE following SIF Oltenia exit from Automobile Craiova

Sale of the participation owned by financial company SIF Oltenia (SIF5) in car maker Automobile Craiova sent the financial sector surging 14.77 percent on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), close to the maximum variation limit, and brokers suspect the entrance of some major players.

SIF Oltenia, one of the five financial companies in Romania, will cash in 75 million lei from selling the participation in local carmaker Automobile Craiova to American auto producer Ford, which will control about 95 percent of the capital, people close to the investment fund said.

The transaction was settled at 17.50 lei per share, up 2.94 percent over the last price established on the market. Ford acquired 4.27 million shares belonging to Automobile Craiova, representing 22.56 percent of its share capital.

The BSE suspended transactions with SIF Oltenia at 12:18 p.m. after the trading value reached the maximum variation limit of 15 percent as there were no more sellers on the market willing to give up their shares. SIF Oltenia shares resumed trading at 1 p.m.

Liquidity surged 77 percent to 44.60 million lei (10.66 million euros) from 25.2 million lei in the previous session.

"The high trading volumes in the past days point to the entrance of some major players, even if a large part of deals today were generated by speculators," declared for NewsIn Alin Brendea vicepresident of the brokerage house Prime Transaction, saying that there is no reason to believe the mini ascending trend could stop.

The BET index of the ten best companies on the market grew 5.56 percent to 2,803.74 and the BET-C composite index assessing all listed shares without financial companies upped 4.33 percent to 1,770.86.

NewsIn