In the first two days of the week, Bulgarian shares moved up on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), but brokers were careful not to make brave predictions for a longer upward trend.

The blue-chip Sofix index, which includes the 16 most-liquid shares on the BSE, added 0.15 per cent to finish at 1280.63 points on April 24. The broader BG40 index move up by 0.04 per cent to reach 252.98 points. Stock exchange indices edged higher in low volumes, rising for a third day in succession amid positive sentiment.

"Apparently there is some kind of revival on the market, but turnover is still too low to say this for sure," Kliment Rudinski, a trader at Sofia-based brokerage Bulbrokers, told SeeNews agency. Total BSE turnover fell to 10.9 million leva from 11.2 million on April 23.

The players on the market tend to focus on the the upcoming flotations of two Bulgarian-based banks, Rudinski said. First Investment Bank and Corporate Commercial Bank are expected to raise their capital via initial public offerings on the BSE next month.

Among the most liquid shares on April 24 were blue-chip industrial conglomerate Chimimport and fuel trader Petrol. Chimimport went up by 0.19 per cent to 10.03 leva on turnover of nearly 115 000 shares, after rising 1.68 per cent in the previous session. The holding told a news conference on April 23 that it had restructuring plans and result projections for most of its units.

Petrol lost two per cent to finish at 4.80 leva with 221 500 shares changing hands.

On April 23, Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) was among the most traded on the BSE. BTC rose 0.83 per cent to 12.10 leva with more than 237 000 shares changing hands. According to brokers, an inflow of funds freed after two initial public offerings held the week of April 16 is very likely to be the reason for the upswing of the market. An exmaple of this is wine maker Todoroff, who, on April 19, sold a third of its capital in an IPO, which was 4.5 times oversubscribed. Its shares ended at 2.02 leva on April 23, down 0.04 per cent.

Industrial minerals producer Kaolin raised 61.8 million leva in its offering, which was more than three times oversubscribed. Kaolin will start trading on the BSE in late May.

Total turnover on the BSE rose to 11.2 million leva from 3.8 million leva on April 21, which was a working day.