Trade at the Bucharest Stock Exchange-BVB on Monday started well into red with losses reported at all indices. By 10.15 a.m., the financial investment societies - SIF reported the heaviest loss with 3.5%, while the general index BET-C stood 2% down from Friday closing. The ten most traded companies followed by BET index also reported a 2.25% loss in the morning.

It’s the steepest fall of the BET-C index in the last nine months. And at closing bell the BET index stood at -5.19%, the BET-C index at -5.05%, BET-FI index at -6.78%, slightly up after a fast drop earlier today.

Another record for this year: trading above 100 million RON.

By mid-session, the morning fall grew faster with heaviest losses on BET-FI, measuring the performance of SIFs. By 12.00, it reported a fall of 7.24%, followed by a slight return to -5.71%.

After an afternoon slowdown the red got more intense on all key indices.

“Volatility is higher here [in Romania] and so are emotions and investors would rather choose to withdraw early especially on emerging markets”, BVB head Septimiu Stoica told HotNews.ro. He said today’s losses follow last week’s trend sparked by the crises in Asia and other international markets.

And Adrian Simionescu, a Finans Securities broker, the stock exchange lost some several hundred million euro on Monday trading.

Top 10 losers:

1. SOCEP CONSTANTA (SOCP) -13.04%

2. M.J. MAILLIS ROMANIA BUCURESTI (MJM) -12.50%

3. POLICOLOR BUCURESTI (PCL) -12.00%

4. LOULIS (MPN) -10.71%

5. CARBOCHIM CLUJ NAPOCA (CBC) -10.00%

6. COMPA SIBIU (CMP) -8.33%

7. SIF 1 -8.19%

8. SIF 4 -7.10%

9. MECHEL TARGOVISTE (COS) -6.96%

10. PRODPLAST BUCURESTI (PPL) -6.71%