Bulgarian Stocks Surge in Corrective Move

The SOFIX index, which includes the 20 most liquid stocks on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), jumped 5.48% to 638.76 points, and the broader BG 40 index, which tracks the 40 most liquid companies on the bourse, climbed 5.36% to 164.29.

“Gains on Asian markets sparked an upbeat sentiment on our stock exchange,” Elena Nikolova, a broker at Sofia-based Bulbrokers, told SeeNews.

Asian stocks rose after the U.S. and European central banks cut interest rates and most of the region's central banks followed suit.

Nikolova said that the Bulgarian stocks' move up was a correction to the downward trend rather than a long-term reversal.

She added that certain stocks like investment firm Agria Group Holding, financial group Eurohold Bulgaria and car battery maker MonBat, which suffered steep losses in previous sessions, attracted stronger demand on Thursday.

Agria surged 14.86% to 5.40 levs and Eurohold climbed to 12.13% to 2.67 levs. Shares in MonBat grew 7.98% to 6.59 levs.

On Thursday, advancers outnumbered decliners by 75 to 33, eight shares ended flat.

BSE's turnover, excluding block and other pre-agreed deals, fell to 4.4 million levs ($3.2 million/2.2 million levs) from 16.4 million levs on Wednesday.

The BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, gained 4.54% to 433.28 points and the BG-REIT index, tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts, lost 2.56% to 65.23.

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, surged 6.68% to 82.84 points.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)