The number of active investors on the Bucharest Stock Exchange fell to around 5,500 last month, the same level as December last year, after the number of investors exceeded 10,000 in the first few months of the year in which investing in shares became something of a fashion.
These figures refer to the number of investors that bought stock at least once during the month, which is considered the best way to gauge investor interest in stock investments.
Many who began buying stock in January and February when the market was growing have since left the market or are waiting for better times to cash in on their investments in listed securities and proceed to other acquisitions.
"The market has actually reverted to the loyal customers. From what we''ve seen, there were only a few that withdrew from the market. Many that came to invest on the stock exchange earlier this year have now become passive investors and are no longer trading. This also shows in the development of liquidity on the BSE," says Alin Brendea, head of operations with Prime Transaction, a brokerage firm.
The number of stock sellers has also fallen, though it remained above 40,000, of which most are in fact selling the coupons they received from the Mass Privatisation Programme.
The Bucharest Stock Exchange has no data on the exact number of stock buyers for the first three months of the year, a time when its trading system was replaced and the trading of various stocks was gradually moved from one system to another.
The latest available data are those for the first three weeks of January, a time when the number of investors buying shares exceeded 8,000, of which over 95% were private investors. Brokers say that investor interest in listed securities placements continued to rise in February, together with the rise in stocks, implying that the monthly number of stock buyers may have exceeded 10,000 in February.
The number of those buying shares on the market rose from around 3,100 in January to 5,555 in December last year. The number of investors to have bought shares on the stock market in April of this year came to 8,747, only to fall to 5,685 last month.
However, brokers believe that the wave of new investors over the first two months of the year has not left the market, but instead has chosen to stop trading. "Most of the new accounts opened in the first few months of the year have not been closed yet. The investors, however, are not trading as much as they did and are keeping the stocks they bought back then. On the other hand, only a few have come with more money to invest," says Marius Trif, the head of Carpatica Invest, Banca Comerciala Carpatica''s brokerage firm.
July and August, which are traditionally slow months as far as the Bucharest Stock Exchange is concerned, could bring new declines in the number of players on the market due to the summer holidays.
The BET index, which gauges the most important listed securities on the market, peaked in late February after having climbed 55% in two months due to the feeling of optimism resulting from the change of government at the end of last year.
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