April 27 (SeeNews) - The blue-chip SOFIX index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) erased 2.66% to 613.52 points on Wednesday after Russia's Gazprom halted deliveries to Bulgaria, bourse data showed.
Bulgaria's energy minister Alexander Nikolov said on Wednesday that the country has natural gas for at least a month ahead and the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) has taken steps to ensure alternative supplies. Earlier on Wednesday, Gazprom said that gas deliveries to Bulgaria will not be resumed until payments are received in rubles.
The top decliner among members of the SOFIX was energy and insurance group Eurohold Bulgaria [BUL:EUBG] whose shares went down 8.94%. Eurohold closed at 2.24 levs in a trading volume of 3,574 shares.
Drug trader Sopharma Trading [BUL:SFT] was the only gainer among blue-chips with its shares closing 0.89% higher to 4.54 levs.
A significant 22.12% drop in fertiliser maker Neochim [BUL:NEOH], to 44 levs, weighed on the BGBX40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the Sofia bourse and on the BGTR30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight. The BGBX40 lost 2.41% to 143.48 points, while the BGTR30 decreased by 2.13% to 722.37 points.
The BGREIT index, which tracks seven real estate investment trusts, fell 0.38% to 179.36 points, dragged down by a 1.80% decline in Bulgarian Real Estate Fund REIT [BUL:BREF], to 2.18 levs.
Total turnover on the BSE's main market dropped to 3.5 million levs ($1.9 million/1.8 million euro) from 4.4 million levs on Tuesday.
TPP Bobov Dol [BUL:TBD] accounted for nearly 1.1 million levs of the turnover. The company closed Wednesday's trading session flat at 20 levs as 53,521 shares changed hands.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)