Page 34 - bneMag bne_December 2020_20201201

34 I Cover story bne December 2020
The Hungarian pharma company is reported to have supplied enough
doses to Hungarian hospitals to treat 5,000 patients with the COVID-19 drug Remdesivir, after the government had already ordered some 3,000 doses in the spring. Earlier in the month, Richter reported record revenue in the first nine months on the back of surging sales to the US. The share price has moved in a wide range from HUF6,300 and HUF7,000 in the 20 days.
Bucharest benefits from emerging market upgrade
Southeast Europe’s largest exchange, the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), marked a milestone in September when it held its first session as an emerging market following a long- awaited upgrade decision by FTSE Russel. The September 21 session, the BVB’s first as an emerging market, also marked the inclusion of the first two Romanian companies, Nuclearelectrica and Banca Transilvania, in the FTSE Global Equity Index Series (GEIS).
A statement from the BVB on October
12 said there had been an immediate impact from the upgrade, as the average daily liquidity increased by 3.5 times in September compared to August 2020, and €25mn. A month later, on November 16, the BVB reported that even amid the downturn in sentiment caused by the autumn second wave of the pandemic, the total value of transactions in the first 10 months of 2020 exceeded the figure achieved for the whole of 2019.
Starting from December 1, MSCI will move Kuwait to the emerging markets league, which will increase the share of companies from the BVB in the MSCI Frontier Markets 100 index. Their weight in the MSCI index will rise from 8% to 10.26% in five stages over a year, according to the agency’s simulations. Thus exchange traded funds (ETFs) that follow the index are acquiring Romanian shares to reflect the new structure of the stock basket.
Under these conditions and amid
a positive international environment for the stock markets, the BVB indices
made gains, and the blue chip index BET marked a 13.4% advance in the first 24 days of November. Compared to the pre-crisis peak of January-February, the index still lags by 8.6%, which is roughly in line with the dynamics of Euro Stoxx 50 that put in an 18.6% rally in November but still lagged
9.3% behind the pre-crisis peak.
The month was marked at BVB, besides the rise in MSCI weight, by the positive mood prompted by the US elections and successful vaccine news; this meant the return to the best performances seen in the period since the plunge in February- March, though not yet to pre-crisis levels. The quarterly financial reporting season has, however, poured some
cold water on the sentiment, as some companies failed to meet expectations.
Zagreb’s Crobex10 at highest
level since March crash
Among the smaller Southeast European exchanges, the two main indices of
the Zagreb Stock Exchange, Crobex and Crobex10, rallied on November
16, with the Crobex10 reaching
The Bucharest Stock Exchange's blue chip index BET marked a 13.4% advance in the first 24 days of November.
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