The past week witnessed two IPOs, two bond issues, a company change in a Dow Jones index that includes Bulgaria, alongside a bullish start and bearish wrap-up for the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE). Companies in the headlines, such as the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) and Petrol, dominated trading.
On April 14, the bourse welcomed the debut of Mart Bulgaria and Dalia. The first company, active in brick-and-mortar and e-distribution of pre-paid mobile phone operator’s packages, floated one million shares at a par value of one lev. Dalia, a furniture manufacturer and trader, put out shares worth 0.4 million leva at a par value of one lev.
The same day, the bourse introduced two new bond issues. Doverie-Brico, the operator of Mr.Bricolage do-it-yourself shops in Bulgaria, issued debt worth 18 million euro, whereas Euroleasing EAD floated one-million euro worth of bonds.
Also on April 14, the real estate investment trust (REIT) Black Sea Investments launched a subscription campaign for 0.65 million rights to shares, to last through April 24. The rights will entitle owners to buy 14.3 million shares with a par and issue price of one lev. The REIT will consider the campaign successful if investors bid and pay for at least eight million shares.
On April 9, the majority owner of fuel retailer Petrol made a one-off transaction raising its stake in the company by one percentage point to 70.52 per cent, the largest transaction last week. The deal involved the purchase of 0.74 million shares. This was among 30 other transactions made. Busy trading pushed the price of Petrol up from 5.68 leva a share to six leva.
The ascending streak for Petrol equity continued in subsequent days to close at 7.42 leva apiece on April 14.
As of April 14, Bulgaria’s fixed-line phone operator Bulgarian Telecommunications Company was removed from the blue-chip Dow Jones STOXX Balkan 50 Equal Weighted Index, which tracks the movement of the 50 largest capitalisation and most liquid equities on the Balkans. The new entry into the index is Odessos Ship Repair Yard. The index also includes Bulgaria’s chemical holding Chimimport, the Central Co-operation Bank, pharmaceutical company Sopharma and Industrial Holding Bulgaria.
On the same day, the Bulgarian phone operator, which plans to delist shortly, was also removed from the DJ STOXX EU Enlarged TMI, the index gauging the performance of 130 public companies originating from European Union newcomers from the 2004 and 2007 waves.
The list covers the abovementioned companies, as well as Petrol AD and resort operator Albena AD.
Optimism, which pulled all main indices up through the close of the working week ending April 11, subsided in the first two days of this week with all bourse indices incurring losses. Sofix, the index tracking the 16 largest and most liquid companies, was one per cent down to 1173.43 points. The broader BG40 shed 0.9 per cent to 341.78 points. The REIT-tracking index BG REIT shed 0.01 per cent to 95.56 points and BG TR30 lost 1.5 per cent to 796.17 points.
Analysts saw the decline as a consequence of the poor performance of US stock markets.They also projected bullish sentiment would return if quarterly financial reports of public companies brought positive news. Reports are due by the end of next month.
