November 22 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian Stock Exchange's blue-chip SOFIX index dropped 0.27% on Thursday after the ongoing sell-off of shares in construction company Trace Group Hold [BUL:T57] and lender Central Cooperative Bank (CCB) [BUL:4CF].
The SOFIX shedded 1.6 points to an end value of 587.87 points, hitting its lowest close since December 2016.
Trace Group Hold erased 3.57% to 2.70 levs - its lowest close since July 2012. The company is 16.7% down so far this month, and is some 13% away from an all-time low.
Trace Group Hold's headaches began in August, when a bus crash, allegedly caused by the poor condition of a road recently repaired by the company's unit Trace Svoge, killed 17 and left dozens injured, and later became reason for the resignations of Bulgaria's ministers of interior, transport and regional development.
The company repeatedly denied all allegations, but its share price suffered a 20.6% drop by September 10. In response, the company launched a share buyback programme, which brought its share price to a peak of 3.58 levs on October 3, cutting its losses since the accident to some 5.3%. However, as the company was due to publish its nine-month financial report by end October, share repurchases could no longer be made and the Trace Group Hold's share price went straight downhill from then on.
The other major contributor to the SOFIX decline was CCB, which suffered a 2.74% decline on Thursday, hitting a two-year low of 1.42 levs at the end of the session. CCB shares have lost some 9% since last week, when the European Central Bank (ECB) announced last week that it will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the lender, as part of the process of establishing close cooperation on supervision with Bulgaria's central bank.
Diversified group Chimimport [BUL:6C4], majority owner of CCB, posted the third sharpest decrease among blue chips on Thursday, losing 2.56% to 1.90 levs.
At the other end of the scale, another blue-chip lender, which is due to be checked by the ECB - First Investment Bank (Fibank) [BUL:5F4] gained most among blue chips. Fibank shares ended 5.0% higher at 3.57 levs, cutting their losses since the ECB announcement to 0.83%.
The wider BGBX40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the Sofia bourse, fell 0.31% to 114.64 points on Thursday, hit by the drop in Trace Group Hold shares.
Drug trader Sopharma Trading [BUL:SO5] was the second biggest decliner among BGBX40 constituents. The company dropped 3.55% to 6.8 levs, erasing its gains from the preceding session.
The BGTR30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, closed 0.26% lower at 488.22 points, as Trace Group Hold and Sopharma Trading fell most among its constituents.
The BGREIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts (REITs), rose 0.20% to 117.35 points on Thursday.
Bulgarian Real Estate Fund (BREF) REIT [BUL:5BU] gained 0.53% to 1.91 levs, followed by Advance Terrafund REIT with a 0.51% rise to 1.96 levs.
Total trading turnover was extremely low on Thursday - some 184,000 levs ($107,000/94,000 euro), sharply down from 642,000 levs in the preceding session.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)