October 15 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian blue-chip share index climbed to an all-time high on Monday, buoyed by gains in Central Cooperative Bank amid a consolidating market, brokers said.
The SOFIX index tracking the 17 most liquid shares on the Sofia stock exchange gained 0.3% to close at a record 1,952.4 points, but the broad BG 40 index closed down 1.22% at 603.71 and other indices were mixed.
Six blue-chip shares rose, led by Central Cooperative Bank (Coop Bank), the 11th largest Bulgarian lender by assets, which surged 9.97% to 12.87 levs on turnover of some 11,600 shares. Ten blue chips closed lower and one ended unchanged.
Georgi Biserinski from KD Securities attributed the rise in Coop Bank to the upcoming increase in the bank’s capital and news about an agreed acquisition in neighbouring Macedonia. Last week Coop Bank said it has agreed to buy a 66.67% in Macedonian commercial bank Postenska Bank for an undisclosed sum. It plans to increase its capital by up to two times to some 145.5 million levs ($105.5 million/74.1 million euro).
“The market is in a period of a consolidation after the recent rally,” Biserinski said. Bulgarian stocks retreated from record highs at the beginning of last week after an almost month-long winning streak in SOFIX and two weeks of rises in the BG 40 index.
Biserinski said he anticipated that the market would continue consolidating at current levels ahead of the initial public offering of road constructor Trace Group Hold, which is expected by the end of the month. He added that a deeper slide is unlikely to happen in the near future due to abundant free funds on the market.
BSE's BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, fell 0.19% to 1,211.12. The BG-REIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts traded on the stock exchange, rose 1.42% to 104.27 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, declined 0.71% to 303.42 points.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)