December 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian Stock Exchange indices ended higher on Monday as global stocks surged following the agreement struck this weekend between the US and China for a temporary halt in the planned introduction of tariff increases.
Major US and European stock indices all posted gains of 1% or more at the time the Bulgarian Stock Exchange closed.
The benchmark SOFIX index, which follows the 15 most liquid and capitalised stocks on the Sofia bourse, gained 1.18% to 599.10 points on Monday, erasing its November losses and nearing the psychological 600-point mark.
Diversified group Chimimport [BUL:6C4] rose most among blue chips, adding 3.95% to 1.975 levs, despite the fact that the company said on Friday that its consolidated net profit, excluding minority interest, fell to 58.5 million levs in the first nine months of the year from 62.8 million levs a year earlier.
Lenders First Investment Bank (Fibank) [BUL:5F4] and Central Cooperative Bank (CCB) [BUL:4CF] followed with rises of 2.5% and 2.0%. The share price of the two lenders came under pressure after the ECB announced last month that it will undertake a comprehensive assessment of six banks in Bulgaria, including Fibank and CCB, as part of the process of establishing close cooperation on supervision with the country's central bank.
However, CCB and Fibank shares are still 1.92% and 1.39% down since the ECB announcement, respectively.
The wider BGBX40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the Sofia bourse, increased 1.15% to 116.44 points on the back of a 5.71% rise in the share price of Bulgarian River Shipping Company [BUL:5BR].
Fertiliser producer Neochim [BUL:3NB] posted the second sharpest rise among BGBX40 constituents, of 5.52%, followed by Chimimport.
The BGTR30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, added 1.15% to 495.22 points, backed by the rise in the share price of Neochim and Chimimport.
The BGREIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts (REITs), gained 0.20% to 117.69 points, solely due to a 1.02% rise in the share price of Advance Terrafund REIT [BUL:6A6] - the biggest constituent of the index in terms of market capitalisation.
Total trading turnover rose to 1.1 million levs ($638,000/562,400 euro) on Monday from 277,000 levs on Friday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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