October 1 (SeeNews) - For a second session in a row on Thursday, the real estate investment trust index was the only equity gauge of the Sofia bourse to end in the green, stock exchange data showed.
The SOFIX index, which comprises the 20 most liquid shares trading on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), fell by 0.82% to 476.18 points and the broader BG40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the bourse, inched down 0.30% to 131.22 points.
On Wednesday, the SOFIX fell 1.23% and the BG40 dropped 2.12%.
Turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, more than halved to 1.58 million levs ($1.18 million/807,700 euro) from the Wednesday's 4.2 million levs.
A total of 26 stocks rose, 47 moved lower and four closed unchanged.
Sixteen of the blue chips dropped, and the rest closed higher. Fertilisers maker Neochim led blue-chip decliners for a second trading session in a row, falling by 4.09% to 35.01 levs in a volume of 466 shares. On Wednesday Neochim slipped 6.41%. The second worst-performer on Thursday was resort operator Albena, falling by 4.02% to 38.87 levs in a volume of 110 shares.
Hydraulic equipment maker M+S Hydraulic led the blue-chip gainers, adding 2.47% to 6.15 levs in a volume of 1,000 shares.
The BG-REIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts, advanced 1.7% to 50.18 points, after rising by 0.65% on the previous day. The BG TotalReturn30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, lost 0.93% to 363.59 points, after backing off 0.35% on Wednesday.
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, fell by 0.94% to 69.81 points after a drop of 1.37% in the previous session.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)