Traditionally in the beginning of the week we asked three market players to share their expectations about the coming five workdays. Here’s what they said:

Nadya Nedelcheva, Karoll Investment Brokerage

I expect this week to also be marked by relatively low investment activity on BSE and movement within narrow limits. Last week a part of the free market resource was directed to the issues of Kaolin and Todoroff.

With the approaching of two big IPOs in May (First Investment Bank and Corporate Commercial Bank) the activity will remain low. That’s exactly why I don’t expect strong market reaction even if the quarterly reports, due to be published by the end of this week, are positive.

Among the major events expected this week I would mention the auction for 25% from the capital of Bulgarian River Shipping. Considering the price and the moment of its offering however, I don’t expect any strong interest.

Krasimir Batzinov, Fico Invest

Bids worth over 200 mln leva for Kaolin’s IPO are an indication that free money on the market is waiting for the right time to come into use again and big investors still have significant positions in leva and hold back from serious buys.

This week investors will be watching carefully the forthcoming quarterly financial reports and the agenda of the regular general meetings. I expect higher turnovers, wider price movement margins and moderate optimism. Markets will probably react stronger to weaker reports than to positive ones.

The reasons for this will be the awaited prospect of First Investment Bank and the comparisons with the parameters of Corporate Commercial Bank’s IPO, as well as the restructuring of the investors’ capital.

Borislav Nikov, Status Capital

The results from the second public offering within the recent couple of days were revealed on Saturday. Another public offering was held today - the offering of Bulgarian River Shipping. The next one will be on 10 May, when shares of Corporate Commercial Bank will be offered. With such a busy schedule, IPOs are for sure one of the leading engines on the market.

After Monday a relatively long pause is coming up and investors will have enough time to free the money necessary for the next public offering. In this context I expect lower sales, which we’ve seen for the past couple of weeks partly due to the low enough prices of most shares. The situation around Chimimport will also be interesting with news expected today.