Bulgarian Stocks End Mostly Higher, Selling Pressure from Foreign Investors Eases

The SOFIX index, which includes the 20 most liquid stocks on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), fell 0.45% to 480.33 points, while the broader BG 40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the bourse, rose 4.79% to 145.37.

“Gains on the markets across the world had a [positive] impact on our bourse and that is why the [selling] pressure eased,” Vladislav Panev, board chairman of Sofia-based asset manager Status Capital, told SeeNews. “This led to a modest rise in the other indices and a small dip for the SOFIX.”

He added that positive sentiment and a let-up in selling pressure provided ample room for rises in the most liquid stocks like industrial conglomerate Chimimport and its lender unit Central Cooperative Bank (CCB).

Chimimport rose 12.7% to 3.01 levs in a volume of over 118,000 shares and CCB added 6.94% to 1.40 levs in a volume of some 41,000 shares.

Panev also said that the start of trading in the new shares from a 70-for-1 bonus issue of Holding Roads attracted strong interest on Tuesday.

The Holding Roads stock plummeted 30% to 4.90 levs with over 110,000 shares changing hands.

The company said after the end of bourse trading that it would seek shareholders’ approval to pay to its supervisory board chairman Vassil Bozhkov a bonus of 3.84 million levs ($2.5 million/2.0 million euro) after the good corporate results achieved in 2007.

BSE's turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, rose to 2.5 million levs from 1.5 million levs on Monday.

On Tuesday, advancers led fallers by 64 to 26 and 12 shares closed unchanged.

The BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, rose 0.93% to 357.91 points and the BG-REIT index, tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts, rose 1.12% to 55.14.

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, edged 0.04% higher to 68.04 points.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)