23 years from the first trading on Bucharest Stock Exchange

By Edwig Ban
The first trading session on BVB took place on November 20, 1995. 23 years ago, 6 companies were listed on BVB and investors traded 905 shares during that session. Currently, over 31.3 million shares issued by 87 companies are traded on average every day on BVB’s Main Market Adrian Tanase, BVB CEO: It is only when we look back that we can see how much we had to do and how much progress has been made in Romania and in the local capital market. We are confident about the future as we prepare the infrastructure needed for the market to develop so that in 2020, when we will celebrate 25 years from the first transaction on the BVB, we will have a more sophisticated market that meets the diverse needs of investors
Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), a fundamental institution of the capital market, was reopened in 1995, and the first transactions took place on November 20th. During the first session, 45 transactions were performed with a total of 905 shares issued by 6 listed companies. By the end of 1995, a total of 5 trading sessions had taken place at BVB, 379 transactions were performed with a total volume of 42,761 shares worth RON 250,000. By the end of 1995, 9 companies had been listed on BVB and the market capitalization amounted to RON 25.9 million.
Currently, over 31.3 million shares issued by 87 companies listed on the Main Market are traded on average per day. This year, 222 trading sessions took place, almost half a million transactions were recorded with over 7 billion shares, with a cumulative value of RON 9.1 billion. By the end of November 19, 2018, the market value of the 87 listed companies on the Main Market was RON 170 billion (the equivalent of EUR 36.4 billion).
“It is only when we look back that we can see how much we had to do and how much progress has been made in Romania and in the local capital market. We are confident about the future as we prepare the infrastructure needed for the market to develop so that in 2020, when we will celebrate 25 years from the first transaction on the BVB, we will have a more sophisticated market that meets the diverse needs of investors”, stated Adrian Tanase, CEO of BVB.
In Romania, the stock exchange was founded in 1882. During its existence, the activity of the institution was affected by the social-political events of the time (the Peasants’ Revolution of 1907, the Balkan War 1912-1913) and the stock market was closed during the First World War. After reopening, the stock exchange went through a seven-year period of significant increases, followed by a seven-year accelerated decline. The activity of the stock exchange was discontinued in 1948, with the establishment of the communist regime in Romania and the beginning of the nationalization of the economy.
After nearly 50 years, the Bucharest Stock Exchange was re-established in 1995. In 2010, the Bucharest Stock Exchange was listed on its own Main Market. In 2015, BVB launched the AeRO market for SMEs and start-ups looking for funding. As of last year, after the approval of the merger between BVB and Sibiu Stock Exchange (SIBEX), Romania has a single stock exchange, based on “one country, one stock exchange” principle. In September 2016, the index provider FTSE Russell included Romania in the Watchlist for a potential future upgrade to the Emerging Market status.