December 5 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian Stock Exchange's benchmark SOFIX index lost 0.68% to 597.25 points on Wednesday as blue-chip lenders suffered a heavy retreat.
The SOFIX had gained 3.11% in the previous five sessions, resurfacing over 600 points for the first time since October.
Central Cooperative Bank [BUL:4CF] fell the most among the 15 blue chips on the BSE, losing 3.27% to 1.48 levs.
First Investment Bank followed with a 2.54% decline to 3.46 levs.
The wider BGBX40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the Sofia bourse, dropped 0.50% to 116.26 points as fertiliser producer Neochim [BUL:3NB] erased almost all its gains this week after closing 9.34% lower on Wednesday.
Neochim's share price grew 5.81% on Tuesday, following a 5.52% increase on Monday.
Neochim's share price drop also dragged down the BGTR30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight. The index closed 0.44% lower at 494.09 points.
The BGREIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts (REITs), edged down 0.09% to 117.47 points solely on the back of a 0.51% decrease in the share price of Advance Terrafund REIT [BUL:6A6].
Total trading turnover edged down to 859,000 levs ($498,000/439,000 euro) on Wednesday from 1.0 million levs on Tuesday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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