The investors that bet on the minor shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange made the highest profits in the first month of the year. The average yield of 30% to 40% of such shares beat the performance of the "established" shares on the market.
Still, except for the SIFs that disappointed, the other major shares did yield tidy profits. The BET index, which gauges the most liquid shares on the market, went up by almost 9%, which is more than a one-year banking deposit would yield.
Out of the most important companies on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the shares of Rompetrol Rafinare (Petromidia) are the top profit makers, with an increase of more than 22%.
The second ranking in terms of gains is BRD, the number two of the banking system, whose shares jumped by 16.2%.
However, the gains the investors were able to get by betting on investments in equity were much higher. The small stocks took the lion's share in January, confirming the remarkable trend of last year, when small and medium-sized companies were the most profitable investments on the Stock Exchange.
The shares of the construction and construction-related companies witnessed the highest increases in prices, namely that particular economy sector which posted the highest growth last year and is expected to maintain a fast growth pace.
Shares of such companies as construction supplies producers Prebet Aiud and Prefab Bucharest saw leaps of 30% to 40%, with the shares of another construction company, Ceramica Iasi increasing about as much.
Large gains were also possible to derive from betting on the shares of railway equipment manufacturer VAE Apcarom, which rose by more than 60% or of the rolling stock manufacturer Remarul 16 Februarie Cluj Napoca, which yielded a 57.5% profit.
Companies in the dairy products industry like Albalact Alba Iulia and Prodlacta Brasov recorded significant growth, 34% and 26% respectively.
Investments in small stocks are riskier for investors because of their low liquidity, which means they will not always be able to sell them when they want to. The small and medium shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange have been drawing more attention from investors since last year. Investors had previously gone almost exclusively for the biggest companies on the market, which witnessed a significant increase as a result, so that the potential for more large profits has decreased accordingly.
Brokers explain the large appetite of the investors for second and third tier shares by the fact that the yields generated by the blue chips are no longer satisfactory.
"Last year was not as the market generally expected it, a year of the financial sector. On the contrary. This made more and more investors look more carefully to the small shares that have a high development potential," stated Adrian Ceuca, the deputy general manager of Broker Cluj, one of the most powerful brokerage firms on the market.
He says the decision of the investors to go for smaller shares on the market primarily depends on the value of their portfolios.
"If an investor has a portfolio of over 100,000 euros, they will be much more pleased with a 30% profitability they can get by mainly betting on the most liquid securities. The investor with a 10,000-euro portfolio, for instance, wants to gain even more and is willing to take greater risks," Ceuca says.
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