The Bucharest Stock Exchange’s blue-chip index BET briefly climbed over the 12,000-point mark on Monday, June 28.

It’s the first time since the index’s launch in September 1997 that this level is reached.

The BET ended the day just 32 points below 12,000 and a 0.78% increase over the previous session.

The BET’s performance on Monday came even as the bigger European markets were in the red due to concerns related to new travel restrictions that may be enforced in the EU to limit the spread of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus. Germany’s DAX index was down 0.3% on Monday, while the French CAC 40 index dropped by 0.94%, and Spain’s IBEX lost 1.88%.

Year-to-date, the BET is up 22%, recording the fifth-best performance among European country indices.

The top five markets in Europe in the first half of this year are all from the CEE region, namely Slovenia, Bulgaria, Austria, Estonia and Romania, according to Tradingeconomics.com data.

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)

andrei@romania-insider.com