March 5 (SeeNews) - The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) said it will include aluminium producer Alro [BSE:ALR] into its benchmark BET index as of March 18, increasing the number of constituent companies to 16.
The company will also join the BET-TR, the total return version of the BET, BVB said in a statement on Monday.
Thus, Alro becomes the first Romanian aluminum producer that is member of the two indices, which brings fresh diversification of the sectors represented.
Alro was put on the watchlist for a possible promotion to the the BET and BET-TR indices by BVB's index committee in September.
The company's shares started trading on the BVB in 1997. Alro currently has market capitalization of approximately 1.67 billion lei ($399 million/352 million euro).
A subsidiary of Vimetco N.V., Alro is one of the largest vertically integrated aluminum producers in Europe, based on capacity, with an installed production capacity of 265,000 tonnes per year. The main markets for the company's products are European Union member states. The company also exports to the U.S. and Asia markets.
Vimetco is a global vertically integrated primary and processed aluminum company.
The BET is the first index developed by the BVB and is the benchmark of the Romanian capital market. Set up on September 19th, 1997, BET has had a maximum of 10 companies for nearly two decades.
In 2017, it was extended to 13 companies by including oil pipeline operator Conpet [BSE:COTE], private healthcare provider MedLife [BSE:M] and telecom services provider DIGI Communications N.V. [BSE:DIGI]. In September 2018, a further two companies were included in the BET and BET-TR - food service operator Sphera Franchise Group [BSE:SFG] and wine producer Purcari Wineries [BSE:WINE],.
Alro's shares traded 9.35% higher at 2.48 lei as at 0935 CET on Tuesday on the BVB.
(1 euro=4.7397 lei)