SOFIA (Bulgaria), September 13 (SeeNews) – The Bulgarian stock indices ended mostly higher on Thursday and share prices are expected to rise next week amid abundance of free cash in the market, brokers said.
The SOFIX index of the 17 blue-chip shares on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) edged 0.08% higher to 1,637.4 points, while the broad BG 40 index gained 2.01% to 423.05 points.
“Shares were moving in different directions today. A slight tension can be felt as the market hasn’t lost steam,” Krasimir Atanasov, portfolio manager at Elana Fund Management, told SeeNews.
Sixty-eight stocks fell, 67 rose and 14 ended flat on Thursday.
Atanasov said the BG 40 index rose mainly due to gains in heavyweight paint and coatings producer Orgachim, which recovered after widespread selling on Wednesday, Atanasov said. Company stock rose 3.0% to 474 levs in volume of 55 shares.
Share prices are likely to keep rising because of the large volume of free funds chasing shares on the Bulgarian market, Atanasov said,
The BG 40 index has more than doubled its value since the beginning of the year, while the SOFIX index has added some 35% since then. The rise was partly fueled by the country’s accession to the EU in January and the significant rise in the number of foreign investors buying Bulgarian stocks.
The BSE’s total turnover fell to 12.8 million levs ($9.1 million/6.5 million euro) from 24.7 million levs 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, rose 0.75% to 250.80 points.
BSE’s BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, including companies with a free float of at least 10% having equal weights in the index, gained 0.29% to 1,022.29 points.
The BG-REIT index based on market capitalisation corrected for the free float, of real estate investment trusts traded on the stock exchange, edged 0.11% lower to 98.81 points.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)