The forthcoming IPO of Bulgaria’s first civil engineering company to venture а public listing, Trace Group Hold, the slew of nine-month reports that keep rolling this month, as well as top-tier appointments influenced developments at the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE).

In the early trading hours on October 31, 54 per cent of the shares lost value from the October 30 close, 39 per cent reported gains and the remaining seven per cent were stagnating.

This performance translated into losses for three of the four BSE indices. The Sofix, the index tracking the 17 most traded shares on the bourse, shed 0.16 per cent to 1939.9 points. Blue-chip gauge BG40 lost 0.83 per cent to 611.45 points, while BG TotalReturn30 was down 0.02 per cent to 1227.91 points. Only BG REIT reported gains, up 0.37 per cent to 104.92 points.

The listing of Trace Group created interest almost without parallel, according to IPO manager Somoni financial brokerage. About 620 investors, both individual and institutional, filed bids worth 32 billion leva in what is a 1480-fold over-subscription for the 200 000 shares or 10 per cent the company’s capital on offer. In view of the heightened interest, investors will be allowed to take a maximum of 135 shares. The shares, of a par value of 10 leva, have 110.5 leva as a starting price in what is to translate to 22.1 million leva in IPO proceeds.

Trace Group is due to debut on the bourse in early December. Its start-up market capitalisation of 243.1 million is due to skyrocket already in the first days of trading as BSE investors will be looking to tap to the niche-opening offeror.

Greek-owned developer Venus has taken on Trace Group’s heels. On October 30 it announced it would be staging an IPO before the close of this year.

BTC sent mixed signals the past week, which cautioned investors from performing large-scale transactions with this stock. Shares in BTC ended 0.27 per cent higher to 10.98 leva on October 31, unchanged from the previous day. Within a seven-day span, the company named Bernard Moscheni as the new CEO of the company, reported a 30 per cent decrease in January-September consolidated profit to 95.02 million leva for the first nine months of the year, as did announce it would be heading toward de-listing within a month.

In addition, shares of Enemona, the company in charge of conventional trading, edged higher as the company has reported a 3.86-fold increase in consolidated profit.

Shares of Synergon Holding added 3.7 per cent to 17.53 leva on news the company would be heading toward restructuring.

Sopharma AD reported a 37 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit to 26 million leva, which sent the shares of the company 9.07 leva, a 1.03 per cent increase at October 30 close.