Soon after the August 7 session of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, the shares of Bulgarian Kremikovtzi steel mill fell to 1.701 leva a share, marking a sharp drop of 20.88 per cent. The collapse comes only a day after the Economy and Energy Ministry welcomed the ruling from the Sofia City Court to declare the Kremikovtzi steel mill insolvent on August 6.

However, fast purchases of the shares stopped the slide. In the end they rallied to mark a drop of seven per cent, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik reported.

Currently, the market capitalisation of the steel factory is 40 million leva. Since the beginning of 2008, Kremikovtzi stocks have lost about 90 per cent of their value. During the past year the highest price a share was 40.8 leva – during the autumn of 2007 – while the lowest price was 1.169 leva a share at the beginning of July.