Initial public offerings (IPOs) continued to attract most of investors’ attention on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) on May 8.

On May 7, First Investment Bank launched an IPO of up to 16.5 million shares, which will run until May 18. Corporate Commercial Bank will raise its capital by 20 per cent to 60 million leva on May 10. One of the biggest confectionery producers in the country, Pobeda, is planning to launch an IPO on the BSE in the second half of this year. Pobeda will invest 16 million euro in building a new factory focused on exports to EU markets. Bianor AD will be the first software developer in Bulgaria to be listed on the BSE. Bianor has already submitted its prospectus for the initial public offering of 135 000 shares on BSE to the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) and expects approval by the end of May. The stock will be offered under a book-building method, while the IPO will take place in the summer of 2007.

“The IPOs of the two banks continued to rule the trading today,” Nadia Nedelcheva, financial analyst with local brokerage Karoll, told wire agency SeeNews. “Part of the market players free funds for the IPOs and another part wait for the end of the offerings.”

The good news, including positive first-quarter reports, did not impact the share prices, she said. Most of the companies filed their results for the first quarter of the year last week. The blue-chip Sofix index tracking the 16 most liquid shares on the BSE rose 0.36 per cent to 1.225.48 points while the broader BG40 index went down 0.08 per cent to 243.55 points.

Decliners outnumbered gainers by 49 to 43 with 17 stocks ending flat. Turnover rose to 24.8 million leva from 11.8 million leva the previous day. The May 8 trading volumes were boosted by two separate deals with shares of telecoms group Bulgarian Telecommunication Company and river shipping company BRP. BTC was down 2.28 per cent to 10.7 leva on turnover of almost 285 000 shares and BRP ended flat at 180 leva with nearly 79 000 shares changing hands.

Among the most traded on May 8 were real estate investment trusts like blue-chip Elana Agricultural Land Opportunity Fund and FairPlay Properties.

Elana fell 0.05 per cent to 1.69 leva on volume of 707 160 shares and FairPlay Properties lost 3.79 per cent to 1.14 leva on turnover of 253 800 shares.

In other news, the total value of assets managed by mutual funds listed on BSE have gone up by five per cent to 227 million euro as of the end of April, according to reports submitted to the BSE. The growth rate reached 50 per cent in January to April, and more than three times in relation to a year earlier. Savings allocated to local funds account for only 0.8 per cent of the projected full-year GDP but the growth rate shows that the funds are about to become an important alternative to bank saving deposits in future.