Stock trading platforms announced amid market plunge

The projects for developing trading platforms alternative to the system operated by the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) are multiplying, in spite of the fall of the stock market and a lack of investor appetite. The Bucuresti Global Invest brokerage firm will request approval for the first alternative trading platform in Romania, conceived by Septimiu Stoica, former President of BVB, according to officials of the brokerage company, owned by SAI Muntenia Invest, administrator of the SIF Muntenia financial investment company. “There are two types of attitude in the face of crisis: one that is passive and terrified, and the other active and pragmatic. In the end, the crisis can provide the time to improve your tools,” Stoica told Business Standard. The “Apollo - X” Alternative Trading System will be administered by Bucuresti Global Invest and support transactions of “both existing products on the market, shares and fixed-income instruments, and new products we will launch in time. We hope to attract new, innovative companies, including in the IT&C field,” said Stoica, adding that the first transactions will probably take place in three months. Thus, Stoica will become a direct competitor of BVB, not only because it will be possible to trade BVB listed shares on Apollo - X, but also because the international trading platform which BVB announced in November it intends to create in Bucharest is expected to become operational this summer, targeting shares traded in Central and Eastern Europe.