BUCHAREST, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Romania expects more foreign capital inflow into its stock market after FTSE Russell, a global multi-asset index provider, on Monday promoted Romania to the status of Secondary Emerging market and included two Romanian shares to the FTSE Global All Cap Index dedicated to emerging markets.
"I hope that this new status will translate into increasing stock market capitalization, so that our country becomes an important player in the financial markets of the region," President Klaus Iohannis said in a message to a celebration event organized by the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
He said Romania's inclusion among secondary emerging markets is "a strong signal of confidence for investors, a signal of hope and predictability for entrepreneurs, by increasing their financing capacity."
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, at the celebration event, said his government "is to support the further development of the stock market, the capital market," according to the official Agerpres news agency.
Orban listed some measures for the development of the capital market -- listing of new state-owned companies at the stock exchange, simplification of tax procedures for retail investors, and launch of new programs of government securities issuances through the stock exchange.
In its statement, the Romanian Banking Association (ARB) welcomed the implementation of the FTSE Russell decision, saying that "its strategic objective is to obtain full emerging market status from the profile institutions."
The FTSE Russell decision "should theoretically open the Romanian capital market to a new category of investors, namely emerging markets funds. At the same time, it should increase the visibility of the Bucharest Stock Exchange and locally listed companies," Romania-Insider.com reported in an online story.
"Romania's promotion to emerging market status should, in theory, help local companies get easier access to financing and more visibility on the radar of foreign investors. This could also lead to better valuations for Romanian companies," it said.
FTSE Russell, part of the London Stock Exchange Group, is one of the three global capital market index providers, alongside MSCI and S&P Dow Jones.
Within the FTSE global equity indexes, the FTSE Russell classifies stock markets across the globe into four categories -- Developed, Advanced Emerging, Secondary Emerging, and Frontier. FTSE Russell calculates thousands of indices that measure and evaluate markets and asset classes in more than 80 countries and regions.
China's A-share market was also assigned Secondary Emerging market status by FTSE Russell. Enditem
