The six-month report of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) showed that from January 1 to June 21, the exchange exceeded 2.4 billion leva, and the capitalisation of the companies traded on it was nearly 19.3 billion leva.
The reported turnover for 2006 was 3.4 billion leva.
The average daily turnover for the 119 sessions held on the exchange during the period under review was 20.3 million leva.
At June 21 2007, the market capitalisation was 19.2 billion leva, up by 26 per cent from the beginning of the year (15.3 billion at the end of 2006).
The blue-chip Sofix index of the 16 most liquid shares on the BSE was 1384.94 points at June 21, up by 13.14 per cent from the end of 2006. The BG40 broad index reached 297.31 points, up by 48.7 per cent from the end of 2006 and by 89.4 per cent year-on-year.
Nineteen new issues of shares have been registered since January 2007, including 11 of joint stock companies with a special investment purpose. Fourteen bond issues and the securities of three mutual funds were also registered. At June 21, there were registered shares of 372 companies, 16 of which are traded on the official market, and the rest on the unofficial one. The shares of 28 mutual funds and 80 bond issues were also registered by that date.
As of June 25, the stock exchange will start trading shares of First Investment Bank. The Financial Supervision Commission has already confirmed the prospectuses for the initial public offering of shares of the technological companies Bianor and Specialized Business Systems. The procedures for increasing the capital of these companies are expected to start soon. Investbank shareholders have approved that it be converted into a public company. The same resolution was passed by the shareholders of Net Info BG, Lomsko Pivo, Enemona and Billboard.
On June 25, BSE indexes fell, dragged down by telecoms group BTC, brokers told wire agency SeeNews. Volume jumped, fuelled by a strong debut by First Investment Bank (FIBank), the largest domestically-owned lender. The Sofix fell 0.70 per cent to 1378.12 points, while the BG40 edged 0.02 per cent lower to close at 297.54 points.
BTC lost 5.46 per cent to 11.25 leva but Yani Dragov, a broker with TBI Invest, said that most of the market was higher on June 25 amid positive sentiment. The debut of FIBank drew strong interest with almost 574 000 leva in shares changing hands. The stock opened at 12.50 leva, up from the 10.70 leva issue price in its initial public offering, and peaked at 13 leva before closing at 12.05 leva to show a gain over the issue price of 12.6 per cent.
