SOFIA (Bulgaria), October 30 (SeeNews) – Bulgarian stocks ended higher on Tuesday but with the most liquid shares little changed, an indication that growth is slowing, brokers said.
The SOFIX index tracking the 17 most liquid shares on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) edged 0.17% up to 1,943.08 points, and the broad BG 40 index added 0.30% to 616.58 points.
“Nothing significant happened today but at the end of the session indices went a bit down. Also, almost all the liquid shares ended little changed and they are the first to indicate a slower growth rate,” Stefan Angelov, an analyst with Varchev Finance, told SeeNews.
The two indices have posted big rises since the beginning of the year, when the country’s entry into the European Union attracted more foreign investors to its capital market.
Industrial conglomerate Chimimport, among the most liquid on the BSE, closed 0.3% lower at 17 levs in a volume of some 85,270 shares, while car battery maker MonBat, also among the most traded, ended at 32.75 levs, up 2.3% with some 110,080 shares changing hands.
Angelov said the market was likely to be mostly up until the middle of January, when a more serious fall could be expected.
On Tuesday, chemical fertiliser producer Neochim and fuel and construction materials retailer Toplivo lost ground on bad nine-month financial results posted earlier in the day, Angelov said. Toplivo lost 7.1% to 34.1 levs in volume of about 8,020 shares. Neochim closed 6.2% lower at 89.15 levs in volume of some 980 shares.
On Tuesday, 85 shares rose, 67 fell and 21 closed flat.
BSE's turnover fell to 19.9 million levs ($14.6 million/10.2 million euro) from 32.2 million levs on Monday.
BSE's BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, added 0.25% to 1,228.10. The BG-REIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts traded on the stock exchange, appreciated 0.9% to 104.53.
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, closed 0.47% higher at 310.23 points.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)