November 5 (SeeNews) - A decrease in the share price of blue-chip lenders sent the benchmark SOFIX index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange back to red territory on Monday, despite a 5.78% bounce-back of diversified group Holding Varna [BUL:5V2].
The SOFIX edged down 0.02%, or 0.13 points, to a closing value of 596.67 points on Monday.
Central Cooperative Bank (CCB) [BUL:4CF] fell most among blue chips, losing 3.19% to 1.515 levs, followed by First Investment Bank (Fibank) [BUL:5F4], which ended 2.23% lower at 2.5 levs.
Diversified group Chimimport [BUL:6C4] - majority owner of Central Cooperative Bank, posted the third sharpest decline among blue chips, of 1.0% to 1.99 levs.
Holding Varna was the top gainer among the 15 SOFIX constituents, adding 5.78% to 36.6 levs, following a 7.22% decline in the preceding session.
Early on Monday, the Bulgarian National Bank said that it has reviewed the other systemically important institutions (O-SII) buffer of 10 banks, including CCB and Fibank. The central bank set a buffer of 0.75% of total risk exposure for Fibank in 2019 and 1.0% in 2020. For CCB, the buffer will amount to 0.5% in 2019 and 0.75% in 2020.
Regulated market trading turnover remained below-average since the start of November, as it totalled just over 252,000 levs ($147,000/129,000 euro) on Monday. Over 37% of the daily turnover was formed by trade in compensation vouchers and notes.
Turnover on the BSE regulated market amounted to 208,000 levs and 231,000 levs in this months first two trading sessions, respectively. In comparison, turnover averaged over 500,000 levs in November 2017.
The wider BGBX40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the Sofia bourse, slipped 0.01% to 116.75 points, as Bulgarian River Shipping [BUL:5BR] tumbled 5.71% to 0.66 levs.
The BGREIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts (REITs), gained 0.10% to 117.11 points, on the back of a 0.52% rise in share price of Advance Terrafund REIT [BUL:6A6] - the index's largest constituent by market capitalisation. All other BGREIT components ended the session unchanged.
The BGTR30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, shedded 0.12% to 496.96 points, as CCB and Fibank fell most among its constituents.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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