Business was slow on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) as investors and traders waited for the 2007 corporate results, which companies were supposed to file by the end of February. “The market is lethargic at the moment; the consolidated results of the more important companies are yet to be released,” Svetozar Abrashev, a broker at First Financial Brokerage House, told SeeNews wire agency on February 26. Investors in Bulgaria’s biggest holding company, Chimimport, had reasons to expect a positive future. The company’s CEO Alexander Kerezov, as quoted by Bulgarian-language media, said that he expected profit and revenue growth of between 20 and 30 per cent a year in the medium term.

Good financial results, combined with favourable market conditions and calm global markets would stir up activity on the BSE and could stimulate rises in stock prices, Abrashev said.

The anticipation of company results was one of the reasons why trading volumes remained low during the last week of February. For example, the Sofix index, which covers the 16 most liquid stocks on the BSE,  fell 0.98 per cent to 1409.92 points on February 26. The broad BG40 index, which tracks the 40 most liquid companies on the BSE, lost 0.62 per cent to 404.65 points. The BGTotalReturn30 index of best performers in terms of total return closed 0.21 per cent higher at 925.45 points. The BG REIT index of real estate investment trusts lost 0.75 per cent of its value, closing at 100.67 points.