October 14 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian fertilisers maker Neochim [BUL:3NB] saw its share price plunge 15.26% on Monday, sinking to their lowest closing price since November 2004 - 16.1 levs.
Last week, Bulgaria's deputy energy minister Zhecho Stankov made a visit to Neochim's production plant. The visit was prompted by the planned lay-offs, which are necessary due to the company's "tough financial state," the energy ministry said in a statement on Friday.
In the first half of 2019, Neochim booked a consolidated net profit of 1.1 million levs as it boosted its revenue to 173.8 million levs from 122.1 million levs the year before, according to its annual financial statement.
Last month, the company said that it is resuming nitrogen fertilisers production after a planned annual maintenance of its facilities. However, the company once again stressed that it is operating in very difficult market conditions as natural gas prices in the country are among the highest in the EU.
The blue-chip SOFIX index edged down 0.06% to 561.77 points. The SOFIX was dragged down by a 3.55% decrease in the share price of Central Cooperative Bank (CCB) [BUL:4CF].
CCB was also the top decliner among members of the equally-weighted BGTR30 index, while Neochim led losers among constituents of the wider BGBX40 index.
The BGBX40 index, which tracks the 40 most traded shares on the Sofia bourse, edged up 0.02% to 111.08 points. The BGTR30 index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10% have equal weight, also added 0.02% to 501.17 points.
The BGREIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts, erased 0.16% to 127.67 points.
Total regulated market trading turnover rose to 217,000 levs on Monday from 187,000 levs in the preceding trading session.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)