Page 133 - SE Outlook Regions 2022

5.6 Markets - North Macedonia

The total stock exchange turnover in the first half of 2021 was around €87mn,
which is a decrease of 8% compared to the same period in 2020. It is
important to emphasise that in March and April 2020 the market observed
extremely high stock turnover as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the
other hand, 2021 was marked by a large increase in bond trading of 159%.
Also, the turnover from block transactions increased by 30% y/y.
The MBI10 index, which measures the general level of prices of the 10 most
liquid shares on the Macedonian Stock Exchange (MSE), starting from 2016,
has registered continuous annual growth (16.45% in 2016, 18.92% in 2017,
36.64% in 2018, 34.01% in 2019 and 1.20% in 2020).

During the first half of 2021, the MBI10 index, with the exception of February,
continued to grow continuously and compared to the end of 2020, on June 30,
2021 it was 5,281.14 index points, and recorded a double-digit increase of
12.25%.

In the first half of 2021, there was an upward movement in the prices of all
shares that are components of the MBI10 index.

Companies from the pharmaceutical, telecommunications and banking sectors
were the least affected. The companies from the sector of tourism, catering
and construction that are listed on the MSE, were the most affected by the
crisis, the bourse director Ivan Steriev said.

North Macedonia is rated ‘BB-’ with stable outlook and ‘BB+’ with negative
outlook by Fitch.

5.9 Markets - Romania

The Bucharest Stock Exchange’s (BVB's) flagship index, BET, closed the
trading session on December 28, above 13,000 points for the first time since
its launch in September 1997.

The BET, which follows the evolution of the most traded 19 stocks on the BVB,
gained almost 33% during 2021, which makes it one of Europe’s top 10
best-performing country indices in the year , according to Trading Economics
data.

Three companies that are part of the BET index have seen their shares go up
more than 100% in the last year: construction materials producer Teraplast
(+195%), nuclear power producer Nuclearelectrica (+165%) and medical
services provider Medlife (+135%).

Energy groups OMV Petrom (SNP) and Romgaz (SNG) and investment fund
Fondul Proprietatea (FP) also recorded above-average performances of
35-38% in the last year.

At the opposite end, aluminium producer Alro (ALR) was the BET’s poorest
performer in 2021 with a drop of almost 20%. Utility companies Transgaz,

133 SE Outlook 2022 www.intellinews.com