Bucharest stocks' Radu Hanga: I think Romanian stock exchange is now registering new takeoff

  This year the Romanian stock exchange has surpassed the cumulated listings of the last 6 years and now the institution is registering a new takeoff thus fulfilling its goal increasingly better, to help local companies to finance themselves, President of the Stock Exchange Bucharest Radu Hanga told an interview for Agerpres."I think that the Romanian stock market is now registering a new takeoff, it is starting to develop and fulfill its goal increasingly better, that of helping local companies to finance themselves. This year we had more listings than in the last 6 years cumulated. That is, in the last 6 years there have been 18 listings of some companies, and the number of bonds in this period has been quite low. In the first 9 months of this year we already have 19 listed companies, to which are added 22 issues of corporate bonds," says Radu Hanga."The largest banks in Romania are among the most important intermediaries on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. I think everyone wants the capital market to move forward, to develop, and we see that happening," Hanga added."Basically we are in a situation where a lot of resources have been accumulated. Deposits of individuals have exceeded the amount of 270 billion lei. We live in an economy where capital has been accumulated and the remuneration of this capital in the form of interest is much lower than it was 10 years ago. It generates and will continue to generate a process of migration to investment alternatives. (...) If we look at the stock market's performance in terms of prices in recent years, we will see that it is very good. A positive momentum has built up around the stock market that also comes from the area of entrepreneurs and companies that went through the listing process, came to the stock exchange and had a positive experience. This creates a network effect because people communicate with each other and positive experiences help," says Hanga."We are an institution that will soon be 140 years old, a respectable age. This means a tradition that we honor, which gives us credibility through continuity. The new logo of the Bucharest Stock Exchange is naturally a stylization of the old one, simplified and modernized in terms of appearance and color, better adapted to the online environment towards which we are increasingly moving. In addition to our logo, the new slogan, "The future belongs to those who invest in it," sums up our new direction and vision," said Hanga.In Radu Hanga's opinion, "according to the statistics of the Investor Compensation Fund at the end of the first 6 months we had over 70,000 investors, up by 32 percent compared to the end of 2019.""Romania's emerging market status, not only of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, gives a significant impact to listed companies. The amounts circulating in the emerging markets universe are much higher than the amounts available for border markets. Basically our reclassification as emerging market means, as I said, that a financial highway has opened up for Romanian companies. We have access to a much larger basket of resources and it depends on our performance to access resources," Hanga said in the interview.Finally, the current political crisis does not yet affect the evolution of the stock market, says Hanga. "On the other hand, instability is never good for the capital market, investors do not appreciate it. If the current instability continues, it is possible that at some point we will see an impact on the capital market," he added.