SOFIA (Bulgaria), September 1 (SeeNews) – The Bulgarian stocks ended down on Monday in low turnover with trading expected to remain thin in the following two weeks, brokers said.
The SOFIX index, which includes the 19 most liquid stocks on the Sofia bourse, lost 1.79% to 1,009.61 points. The broad BG 40 index, which tracks the 40 most liquid companies on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), fell 2.09% to 246.
Monday’s losses extended the pattern of downward movements that characterised the summer holiday season while the companies’ financial statements did not give investors any reason to buy actively, Borislav Simeonov, broker at Delta Stock, told SeeNews.
He added that the blue-chip SOFIX index was likely to remain in the 1,000-point range over the upcoming two weeks, while trading activity would remain muted.
The most traded stock on Monday was car battery maker MonBat, a performance helped by an ongoing share buyback, Simeonov said.
MonBat was down 1.8% to 11.81 levs in a volume of 52,866 stocks. The company launched on August 1 a buyback of up to 0.295% of its share capital to shore up its stock price amid a negative market trend.
Another decliner was drug maker Sopharma, which ended at 4.2 levs, down 3.9%, with 7,990 stocks changing hands.
The company’s disappointing first-half results are the most probable reason for the fall, Simeonov said.
Sopharma on Friday reported a 43% year-on-year slump to 11.5 million levs ($8.7 million/5.9 million euro) in first-half consolidated net profit as costs rose faster than revenue.
Trading in financial group Eurohold Bulgaria was not affected by a statment made on Monday by the company that it has acquired a 10% stake in Serbian insurance company Takovo Osiguranje, remained unaffected by the news, Simeonov said.
Eurohold ended at 4.9 levs, down 1.4%, in a volume of 3,573 stocks.
On Monday 56 shares fell, 34 rose and 19 closed unchanged.
Total turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, fell to 2.8 million levs ($2.1 million/1.4 million euro) from 6.78 million levs on Friday.
The BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, slid 1.53% to 654.29 points and the BG-REIT index, tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts listed on the bourse, was down 1.62% to 85.11.
The Dnevnik 20 index, calculated by local business daily Dnevnik from the share prices of the 20 leading companies in terms of liquidity and market capitalisation, fell 1.83% to 131.72.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)