December 7 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian stocks advanced in thin volumes amid a consolidating market on Friday, brokers said.
The blue-chip SOFIX index, which includes the 16 most liquid stocks on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, added 1.57% to 1,760.28 points and the broad BG 40 index rose 1.23% to 531.90.
The bourse's BG-REIT index tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts' shares gained 0.76% to 101.67 points and the BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, advanced 0.46% to 1,103.19.
"The trading was very weak in terms of volumes, excluding a few certain deals in Petrol and Doverie [Obedinen Holding], Tsvetoslav Tsachev, a capital market analyst at Elana Fund Management, told SeeNews.
A cross deal in which some 2.3 million shares in fuel retailer Petrol changed hands at 4.34 levs and a transaction involving 200,000 shares in Doveria boosted the overall trading volumes on the BSE on Friday with total turnover rising to 25.5 million levs from 12.8 million levs the previous day.
Blue-chip Petrol closed at 4.3 levs, down 0.26%, while shares in Doverie, part of the BG 40, rose 0.09% to 14.17 levs.
Tsachev said that the market was for the whole week in a period of consolidation. "When the prices become stable serous buyers among insitutional investors will show up," he added.
Decliners led advancers by 67 to 58, 20 stocks ended unchanged.
Among the biggest gainers was blue-chip Bulgarian American Credit Bank, which surged 7.4% to 80 levs on turnover of over 4,000 shares.
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, edged 0.19% lower to 278.23 points.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)