Summer lethargy continued to keep calm the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), which made no surprises for investors at the start of the trading week.

Investors shrugged off the consolidated reports coming in on the market and indices finished almost flat. Trade turnover could not even clear the BGN 1 million mark. Only Dnevnik 20 of the biggest and most liquid stocks made an attempt at making some moves, but only to tiptoe down by 0.18% to 55.33 points.

The Bulgarian bourse has been maneuvering up and down in synch with foreign markets, which gained some ground after US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke pledged to do whatever it takes to ensure that economic recovery in the US continues.

“Sometimes, all markets need are some reassuring words and Bernanke’s seem to have done just that,” Ben Potter, an analyst at IG Markets Ltd in Melbourne, told Bloomberg.

More encouragement came from Monday’s US consumer spending figures and Europe’s business confidence data, both of which posted increases.

On the BSE, fuel retailer Petrol jumped 9.7% to BGN 2.93 per share after it unveiled a 7% rise in six-month sales even though the rising US dollar doubled its loss. But the volume was a derisory 105 shares.

But investors remained oblivious to the solid growth in profit posted by majority state-owned tobacco group Bulgartabac Holding, which sagged almost 10% to BGN 17 apiece in a volume of 6,000.