Bulgarian Stocks Fall Further, Volumes Rise

The SOFIX index, which comprises the 20 most liquid shares trading on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), slid 1.11% to 447.65 points and the broader BG40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the bourse, fell 1.15% to 119.59 points.

On Friday, the SOFIX lost 0.21% and the BG40 edged down 0.79%.

Total turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, increased to 1.2 million levs ($909,000/614,000 euro) from Friday's 840,000 levs.

Decliners outnumbered advancers 51 by 30 and 17 stocks closed unchanged.

Blue-chip drug maker Sopharma was among the most liquid stocks on Monday as 45,515 of its shares changed hands. The company's stock price fell 0.51% to 4.1 levs.

Three out of the 19 traded blue chips advanced, two ended flat and the rest lost ground.

The biggest advancer was power tools maker Sparky Eltos which surged 5.38% to 2.08 levs in a volume of 4,585 stocks.

The top decliner was real estate investment trust (REIT) ELARG Agricultural Land Opportunity Fund which plunged 4.50% to 0.87 levs as 5,650 of its shares changed hands.

The BG-REIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts, lost 0.43% to 48.68 points after a daily gain of 0.1% on Friday. The BG TotalReturn30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, ticked 0.72% down to 339.82 points after ending 0.64% lower the previous session.

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, fell 0.5% to 63.31 points after it dropped 1.1% on Friday.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)