The SOFIX index, which includes the 19 most liquid stocks on the Sofia bourse, fell 0.34% to 986.22 points. The broader BG 40 index, which tracks the 40 most liquid companies on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, BSE, lost 0.75% to 240.76.
"The main reason [for the fall] is the development on the international markets [...] yesterday they ended lower which had an effect on the Bulgarian market," Ivan Ivanov, investment consultant with Bulgarian asset management company Status Capital, told SeeNews. "Actually, all the markets in southeast Europe lost gound."
"There is no fundamental reason to explain the falls," Ivanov added.
Blue-chip lender First Investment Bank (FIBank) continued its winning streak, remaining among the most traded companies, Ivanov said.
"Generally, the financial companies in Europe have been performing quite well since the beginning of the week and FIBank was lagging behind [...] so it is probably catching up," Ivanov said, adding that changes in the bank's share price were closely related to developments on foreign financial markets.
A total of 151,974 shares in FIBank changed hands on Wednesday as shares in the bank ended 1.16% higher at 6.1 levs.
However, the other listed banks are not so tightly connected to global markets, Ivanov added, citing as an example Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank).
Corpbank shares closed flat at 92 levs in a volume of 1,383 stocks.
Other liquid stocks, such as car battery maker MonBat and mineral extracting and processing company Kaolin, both components of the SOFIX index, followed the general market mood ending lower, Ivanov said.
MonBat ended 1.76% lower at 11.69 levs in a volume of 5,354 stocks. Share in Kaolin lost 2.89% to 6.7 levs as close to 19,000 stocks were traded.
BSE's total turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, increased to 3.5 million levs ($2.5 million/1.8 million euro) from 1.78 million levs on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, fallers outnumbered gainers by 25 to 57 and 13 shares ended flat.
The BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, ended 0.83% lower at 644.99 points and the BG-REIT index, tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts, closed 0.76% down at 84.92.
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, depreciated 1.37% to 128.19 points.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)
