The Sofix index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), which tracks the performance of the ten most liquid stocks on the market, dropped under the 400-points mark on November 14 2008, its lowest value since September 2003.

Despite a bright start to the trading session, the index ended 3.9 per cent lower on the day and 16.3 per cent for the week.

The wider BG40 index lost 0.3 per cent on November 14 and 17.8 per cent for the week, having declined faster than the Sofix in the previous trading days. Market capitalisation fell to 12.15 billion leva.

Low turnover played its part in the decline, the weekly figure for deals with stocks falling to 10.7 million leva, down from 14.6 million the previous week.

The fall comes even as European and Asian indices recovered some ground after several days of straight decline. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was 2.7 per cent higher, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 2.4 per cent. The Dax index in Frankfurt led the gains in Europe, adding 4.6 per cent on the day, while the FTSE 100 index of the London Stock Exchange was 3.6 per cent up.