Bulgarian Stocks Bounce Back on Global Rally

The SOFIX index, which includes the 20 most liquid stocks on the Bulgarian Stock exchange (BSE), added 2.63% to 600.80 points, and the broader BG 40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the bourse, climbed 4.19% to 158.58.

“The market fell more than 20% in the previous week so it is normal to have a temporary upward correction tracking European markets,” Boyan Vassilev, analyst at EFG Securities Bulgaria, told SeeNews.

Stocks in Europe and elsewhere gained on Monday after governments worldwide pledged to support financial institutions in a bid to ward off a global slowdown.

The two main indices of Sofia bourse, SOFIX and BG 40, surged as much as seven percent at opening but failed to hold on to their early gains by the end of session.

“Trade remains tense and volatile which explains the sharp price fluctuations,” Vassilev said.

On Monday, gainers outnumbered fallers by 64 to 44, nine stocks ended unchanged.

“Among the most traded once gain were First Investment Bank (FIBank), Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) and the real state investment trusts (REITs), which changed hands in large volumes,” Vassilev said.

FIBank added 7.69% to 3.49 levs in a volume of almost 107,000 shares and Corpbank gained 0.78% to 70.55 levs in a volume of over 3,000 shares.

Agro Finance was the most traded among the REITs, rising 2.1% to 0.97 levs with over 200,000 changing hands.

BSE's turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, fell to 2 28 million levs from 6.7 million levs on Friday.

The BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, rose 2.67% to close at 414.70 points and the BG-REIT index, tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts, edged 0.37% up to 63.07.

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, leapt 5.79% to 81.06 points.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)