The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) retreated to early 2007 levels as the blue-chip SOFIX lingered below 1,000 points in several sessions and market capitalization tumbled back below the 20b levs mark.

Some stocks hit their lowest since early last year with SOFIX plummeting 40% since January and the bourse’s market capitalization shedding nearly 10b levs, or 34%, of its end-October peak. Neochim, the Bulgarian chemical fertiliser maker, was the only one to see a 3-4% uptick since the start of the year. The five biggest losers were paint and varnish maker Orgachim (-74.6%), lead and zinc smelter OCK (-71%), Central Cooperative Bank (-69%), mining company Kaolin (-61%) and drug maker Sopharma (-60%).

The small volumes weigh further on the market and the flagging demand deepens the losses of investors, who frantically sell out stocks.

Experts say clouds will hang over the BSE until the global markets brighten up. On Friday the European indices hit new bottoms as outlooks on the US and European economies were bleak.

The reeling stock market triggered new slumps in mutual fund assets, which ran at 550m levs in September while investors withdrew heftier amounts, under industry data. Banks’ aggressive marketing strategies offering juicy deposit interest rates chafe hard at mutual funds, according to analysts. Only conservative funds enjoy positive yield, and yet often tinier than on deposits.(Dnevnik)

Sofia-based investment company Investra will spend some 20m levs on the construction of a retail and industrial park in Pleven, in the north.

The news was announced at a work meeting between mayor Naiden Zelenogorski and the firm’s executive director Georgi Rusev.

The park will sprout on a 2.5 ha plot the investor purchased earlier in the year. It will deliver 17,000 sq m of commercial, exhibition, storage, office and servicing space.

The construction is due to begin in 2009.

The new park will cool down the demand for industrial plots, which heated up after the municipality’s industrial park project ground to a halt as the European Commission blocked payments under the Phare pre-accession programme, said Dikran Ovanasyan, project management and development head at the municipality. Pleven hoped to get some 6m levs of Phare aid for preparation and technical monitoring of the park.

Another Sofia-based company, Bulatt, will also build a retail and industrial park in Pleven. (Dnevnik)

Bulgaria’s blue-chip SOFIX index ended Friday’s session with a sharp decline of 1.16% to 977.79 points, just a step from the 976 points bottom of July 31.

The Dnevnik 20 index tracking the biggest and most liquid companies on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange sagged a staggering 2.09% to 127.29 points.

Lead and zinc smelter OCK and Bulgarian-American Bank registered the steepest falls dropping 5% and 4.3%, respectively.

The stocks were also dipped in red on BG REIT, which lost 0.33%. The index gauges the performance of real estate investment trusts (REIT).

The broader BG40 closed nearly 1% lower at 237.07 points.

BGTR30 of the companies with the highest market capitalisation and liquidity was down 1.18% reaching 638.64 points. (Dnevnik)

Lighthouse Golf Resort has absorbed 50m euro of the cost of a 70m euro complex that will go up close to Balchik, on Bulgaria’s northeast edge, executive director Georgi Chuklev said at the ribbon-cutting of the golf course.

The project, named Lighthouse Golf Resort & Spa, will comprise 1,000 housing units, of which some 600 now under construction and 350 already sold to buyers of various nationalities. The five-star hotel part will feature retail space, bars and restaurants, a spa and wellness centre, a tennis court and swimming pools.

The complex will pop up close to two other golf courses – Black Sea Rama and Thracian Rocks, giving golfers the chance to switch courses.(Dnevnik)