Bulgarian Stock Exchange

SOFIX is the best performing index among its Central and Eastern European peers over the last 12M. The blue chips indicator advanced 19.25% y/y as of the end of October 2016 to 531.82 points, highest since mid-2014.

The second best the Croatian CRO index added 13.66% y/y. The Polish WIG20 blue chip index is the laggard among the five peer group.

SOFIX ETF as a driver of growth

Key growth driver for SOFIX was higher institutional investors’ market participation as well as the launch of the first ETF on SOFIX. Local pension funds increased their positions in some of the biggest market cap stocks at the beginning of September while the ETF launch at the end of the same month brought additional considerable demand on SOFIX components.

Expat Bulgaria SOFIX UCITS ETF (BGX BU) started trading at the end of September with BGN 500k of net assets. Over the course of October it gained additional BGN c1.5m inflows. Currently, the fund has BGN 2m NAV under management and expects the amount to grow tenfold by the end of 2016.