"Yesterday, it rose, but today it has dived back. It is so quiet in here. When are you coming back from your vacation?" This is what a Romanian broker and a foreign investor owning stock on the Romanian stock exchange were talking about several days ago.

Net foreign investment on the Bucharest Stock Exchange suddenly tumbled in July, partly because some of the foreign investors are enjoying their holidays, but also because of slight corrections on the market.

In this context, Romanian investors are playing an increasingly bigger role in the evolution of the market.

Foreigners last month bought from the capital market shares worth 1.7 million euros more than the stock they sold, as compared to the 4 million-euro gap between sales and purchases in June and to the 7.4 million-euro one in May.

Brokers handling the foreign investors' transactions say they are either on vacation or do not hold enough information that should allow them to make decisions about new investments.

"Foreign investment has declined, indeed. Most importantly, there have been no significant sales, either. I think foreign investments will regain the value we have become used to starting this September," says Liviu Giugiumica, general manager of BRD Securities, the brokerage of BRD-SocGen. According to Giugiumica, new information is expected from companies that generally catch the eye of foreign investors, such as banks or oil companies.

In the case of national oil company Petrom, for instance, new data is expected with regard to the strategy the Austrian OMV group, which has recently signed the privatisation contract, will embrace in terms of the company's restructuring. vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro

"Yesterday, it rose, but today it has dived back. It is so quiet in here. When are you coming back fro