SOFIA (Bulgaria), September 25 (SeeNews) – The Bulgarian stock indices ended mostly higher on Tuesday with abundant free cash on the market lifting the blue-chip index to a record high for a ninth day running, brokers said.
The SOFIX index of the 17 blue chips on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) added 0.36% to 1,785.61 points, while the broad BG 40 index lost 0.86% to 493.74 points, down from its all-time high of 498.04 points.
Gains in car battery maker MonBat, which had strong financial performance in the past months, supported the rise of the SOFIX index, Boyan Vassilev, an equity analyst at Bulgarian Postbank, told SeeNews.
MonBat on Monday raised its full-year net profit forecast to 16.7 million levs ($12 million/8.5 million euro) from a previously projected 15.5 million levs to reflect strong growth in its eight-month results. Shares in the company closed 7.1% higher at 27.78 levs in volume of some 70,260 shares.
“I expect the indices to slow down their growth in the following months and enter a period of consolidation (…) although I do not expect serious falls as many of the companies exceded investors’ expectations with their first-half financial results,” Vassilev said.
The two indices have been mostly on the rise since the beginning of the year, when Bulgaria’s entry into the European Union prompted an increased inflow of foreign capital to the country's stock market.
On Tuesday 78 shares rose, 65 fell and 13 remained unchanged .
BSE's BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, including companies with a free float of at least 10% having equal weights in the index, added 0.4% to 1,121.49 points.
The BG-REIT index tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts traded on the stock exchange, gained 0.24% to 102.04 points.
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 0.35% up to 284.92 points.
BSE's total turnover rose to 16.5 million levs ($11.9 million/8.4 million euro) from 10.8 million levs on Monday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)