Bulgarian Stocks End Mostly Down in Sluggish Trading

The SOFIX index, which includes the 20 most liquid stocks on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), lost 0.40% to 465.95 points, while the broader BG 40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the bourse, ended 0.26% lower at 142.40.

“There was nothing significant. Trade was rather sluggish. We opened high but toward the end [of the session] the enthusiasm faded,” Boyan Vassilev, an analyst at EFG Securities Bulgaria, told SeeNews.

BSE's turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, tapered to 2.3 million levs from 3.6 million levs on Friday.

“I suppose most investors are awaiting a clearer trend to emerge in developments abroad where we have seen mixed signals over the last couple of days and markets remain very volatile ,” Vassilev added. "Local newsflow is subdued and I do not see any significant domestic catalysts that could fire activity up, and that's why investors are looking for direction to the international markets".

On Friday, fallers led gainers by 52 to 36 and nine shares ended unchanged.

Among the most traded were stocks of real estate investment trusts led by FairPlay Properties, which surged 8.71% to 0.84 levs with over 401,000 shares changing hands.

The BG-REIT index, tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts, shed 0.69% to 53.08 and the BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, added 0.13% to 355.17 points.

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 2.37% to 70.05 points.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)