Low Liquidity Drags Down Bulgarian Bourse in Early Trading, Deal in Fuel Retailer Petrol Lifts Turnover

The SOFIX index, which includes the 20 most liquid stocks on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), plummeted 7.03% to 363.94 points and the broader BG 40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the bourse, plunged 4.12% to 112.57 at 0903 GMT.

"Everybody is trying to exit the market but there is no liquidity, excluding the deal in Petrol, of course," Razvigor Hristov, an investment consultant with Slovenian-owned KD Securities brokerage in Sofia, told SeeNews.

A total of 2,698,674 shares in Petrol changed hands at 9.1 levs ($5.82/4.6 euro) in a single deal, Hristov said. "There is almost no free float in Petrol. [...] The deal is equal to 3.0% of the capital and there will be no announcement who is the buyer."

Under Bulgarian legislation, the companies are required to disclose the parties only to deals exceeding 5.0% of the capital.

Petrol shares were 0.27% down at 0739 GMT.

BSE’s turnover surged to 25.6 million levs ($16.4 million/13 million euro) at 0903 GMT, compared to 1.5 million levs on Friday.

The BG-REIT index, tracking the performance of real estate investment trusts, inched down 0.55% to 52.16 and the BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, dropped 4.83% to 287.19 points at 0903 GMT.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)