Bulgarian Stocks Extend Losses, Ignore Rally Abroad

The SOFIX index, which includes the 20 most liquid stocks on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), fell 2.19% to 501.87 points, while the broader BG 40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the bourse, ended 0.38% lower at 145.66.

The local market responds to the negative news from the international bourses and ignores the positives, Dimitar Georgiev, a broker with Sofia-based Elana Trading brokerage, told SeeNews.

U.S. market opened higher on Thursday and European and Asian stocks were also on the rise, he added.

According to Georgiev, there were two main factors behind Thursday's falls: liquidity-strapped foreign investors being net sellers on the local equity market; and "the absence of absolute certainty among Bulgarian institutional investors that we are close to a firmer bottom and the lack of buying enthusiasm."

BSE's turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, fell to 3.1 million levs ($2.1 million/1.6 million euro) from 11.8 million levs on Wednesday when turnover was lifted by deals in corporate bonds.

"The big news today was trading in [ship repairer] Odessos which made up a third of the turnover," Georgiev said but gave no explanation for the investors' interest in the company.

A total of 6,194 Odessos shares, part of the BG 40 index, changed hands, ending 2.5% higher at 163.95 levs.

Industrial group Synergon Holding, also a component of the BG 40 index, was among the top fallers on Thursday. The company, among the illiquid issues on the market, plunged 16.6% to 2.7 levs on a volume of 67,707 shares.

On Thursday, fallers led gainers by 60 to 30, with 16 stocks ending flat.

"[Corporte] results have had no significant impact on share prices," Georgiev said and added that in the future there will be "diversification in companies" and those with good fundamentals and management will rise higher or fall lower as compared to the others.

"There will be diversification and investors will decide more selectively in what shares to invest."

The BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, lost 1.82% to 366.81 points and the BG-REIT index, tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts, plunged 5.95% to 52.96.

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, dropped 3.6% lower at 71.47 points.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)