Bulgarian bourse up, foreign markets bath in blood red

The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) turned green on Wednesday amid a slight uptick in trading activity.

Meanwhile, global markets remained bloody red, not buying promises by both lawmakers and financiers they would do whatever is necessary to shore up economic recovery.

In Sofia, the broader BG40 index was the best performer with a 1.21% rise to 111.95 points as the others inched up by some 0.5%.

The main contributors were liquid stocks such as Synergon holding and Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), which gained 5% to BGN 1.47 and 3.64% to BGN 61.15, respectively.

Companies around industrial group Chimimport traded bulkier volumes, with asset management firm Velgraf Asset Management seeing more than 290,000 change hands to finish off the session 0.87% in the down. real estate firm Galata Investment Company sold more than 330,000 shares. Chimimport’s common stock advanced by 1.17% to BGN 1.47 per share to BGN 2.43 in a volume of 48,000.

But as the BSE seems to be digesting the positive hue that shone on global markets at the end of last week, bourses worldwide were sending off their second negative session this week and are headed for their worst month since May, according to Bloomberg. The benchmark indices in Europe and Asia shed between 1% and 2% on macroeconomic instability worries.

“The past couple of weeks have been clouded by talk of a double-dip recession," Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd in Melbourne, told Bloomberg. "Until we get some macro-news that is more consistent, these markets are going to be a bit choppy."