Bulgarian Shares Close Mixed, Turnover Surges Fivefold

The SOFIX index, which comprises the 20 most liquid shares trading on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), rose 1.16% to 412.59 points after declining 2.25% the previous day.

The BG40, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the bourse, gained 1.36% to 115.89 points after a drop of 1.54% a day earlier.

Total turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, jumped to 11 million levs ($1.5 million/1.0 million euro) from 2.0 million levs on Thursday.

On Friday 44 shares fell, 42 gained ground and 13 ended unchanged.

Nineteen out of the 20 SOFIX components were traded on Friday. Ot them, 12 closed higher, one closed flat and the rest ended in the red.

The most liquid blue-chip was Central Cooperative Bank which added 6.72% to 1.27 levs in a volume of 3,323,483 stocks.

Eurohold Bulgaria rose 9.8% to 1.3 levs in a volume of 899,387 shares.

The BG-REIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts, closed 1.61% down at 45.88 points. The BG TotalReturn30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, gained 1.01% to 320.93.

On Thursday, the BG-REIT ended 0.6% down and the BG TotalReturn30 lost 1.83%.

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, rose 0.15% to 58.93 points after a decline of 0.89% on Thursday.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgrian levs)