Bygone the first week of October brought reductions to local indices which were in the range 1.02 % to 1.62 %. Stock event of the week was the privatization of Energo-Pro Grid Plc and Energo-Pro Sales Plc that began in Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012. Market orders entered were for BGN 10.5 million, which is almost 11 times more than in the supply of state shares of EVN December 21, 2012. On October 3rd, on the company's website, the majority owner said it does not intend to make tender offers in the coming months, despite having more than 90 % of the company. Naturally, the company led the ranking by turnover with BGN 1.85 million, followed by Advance Terrafund REIT with BGN 744 thousand and Agro Finance REIT with BGN 736 thousand. As part of discussions of the parameters that will underlie the budget for 2013, the most discussed topic this week was the introduction of a minimum wage differentiated by regions, on which of course will the decision shall taken from now on.

Stock indices which we follow recorded a successful week (excluding Japan), led mostly by the news of the serious decline in unemployment in America. Statistics shows that unemployment has fallen to the surprising 7.8 % from 8.1 % in August, while most analysts expected to increase to 8.2 %. This is the lowest unemployment rate in the U.S. from January 2009. This decline is most likely due to the contraction of the labor force, as many Americans have decided to retire in order to prevent from unemployment and their jobs were occupied by other people. Dow Jones recorded its highest closing level in the last five years, having ended on Friday at 13 610.15 points. This week is expected the beginning of the season of the reports for the third quarter, which begins on Tuesday with Alcoa, as next week amongst the most eagerly expected are JP Morgan and Wells Fargo.

Collective investment schemes managed by UBB Asset Management followed the market trend and reported decreases weaker than those for the indices and the white swallow as usual this year proved to be UBB Patrimonium Land, which added 0.42 % to its value. Transactions concluded last week have intended to reach the set target weights for each of the positions in the portfolio....more »

Tihomir Nenov, risk manager