August 10 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian Stock Exchange [BUL:BSE] operator said that it swung to a standalone net loss of 325,000 levs ($169,740/166,170 euro) in the first half of 2022 from a non-consolidated net profit of 4.9 million levs in the same period of 2021.
The BSE's total revenue slumped to 1.7 million levs in the first six months of the current year from 6.5 million levs a year earlier, chiefly due to the cut in income from financial instruments and the non-recurrence of a one-off dividend from a subsidiary paid last year, the BSE said in a recent interim financial statement.
However, revenue from services increased to 1.68 million levs in the review period from 1.28 million levs in the first half of 2021, on the back of a 29% increase in revenue from client contracts.
Market turnover in the first half of 2022 amounted to 514.4 million levs, or more than double that recorded in the first half of last year, as the number of trades jumped by an annual 60% to 58,275.
The Bulgarian Enterprise Accelerator Market (BEAM) segment of the stock exchange saw a 337% surge in turnover to 15.8 million levs. Last month, Bulgarian beehive-monitoring cloud-based technology developer Bee Smart Technologies [BUL:BEE] became the latest start-up to list on the BEAM segment.
The BSE's total assets, including minority shares, declined by 1.34% on the year to some 17.7 million levs, the data set showed.
The stock exchange operator's expenses rose to some 2 million levs in the January-June period from 1.64 million levs in the like period of 2021, as a result of a slim rise in expenses for hired services and personnel.
In June, the Sofia bourse operator's shareholders approved an additional dividend of 0.4826 levs per share for 2021, bringing to some 6.8 million levs the total payout for 2021.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)