August 28 (SeeNews) - The shares of Bulgarian construction company Trace Group Hold [BUL:T57] closed Tuesday's trading session on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange 11.41% lower at 3.26 levs ($1.95/1.67 euro) - their lowest price since July 2013, bourse data shows.
The company's shares lost 2.65% on Monday, after a bus crash, allegedly caused by the poor condition of a road recently repaired by the company's unit Trace Svoge, killed 17 and left dozens injured on Saturday.
On Monday, regional development minister Nikolay Nankov told local broadcaster Nova that the government road infrastructure agency will seek penalties for Trace Svoge due to the company's failure to fix the defects found in the road, as it had been asked by the agency. Trace Group Hold owns a 60% stake in Trace Svoge.
The drop in Trace Group Hold's share price led to a 0.67% decrease in the blue chip SOFIX index of the Sofia bourse, which ended Tuesday's trading session at 630.52 points.
The second biggest blue chip decliner on Tuesday was industrial group Stara Planina Hold [BUL:5SR], which lost 4.26% to 3.26 levs. Stara Planina Hold's consolidated net profit edged down to 5.3 million levs in the first half of the year from 5.4 million levs in the same period of 2017 due to a drop in revenue, the group announced near Sofia bourse closing hours on Monday.
There were only two blue-chip gainers on the BSE on Tuesday - resort operator Albena [BUL:6AB], which added 4.90% to 53.5 levs, and Doverie United Holding [BUL:5DOV], which ended 0.58% higher at 1.725 levs.
The wider BGBX40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the Sofia bourse, fell 0.77% to 121.97 points.
Printing and advertising firm Billboard [BUL:5BP] fell the most among BGBX40 components, ending 18.09% lower at 0.326 levs, followed by Trace Group Hold.
The BGREIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts, edged down 0.04% to 116.78 points.
A 9.38% rise in the share price of Bulland Investments REIT [BUL:5BD] was offset by a decline of shares in Bulgarian Real Estate Fund REIT [BUL:5BU1] and Advance Terrafund REIT [BUL:6A6], which lost 1.02% and 1.45%, respectively.
All other BGREIT components closed without change in their share price on Tuesday.
The BG TotalReturn30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, fell 0.61% to 522.0 points, dragged down by the decline in share price of Trace Group Hold and Stara Planina Hold.
Total trading turnover rose to 635,750 levs on Tuesday from 234,311 levs on Monday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)