The major stock indexes in Bulgaria and Macedonia were the only ones in the region to end last week on positive territory.

Macedonia's MBI-10 advanced by 1.26%, while the SOFIX blue-chip index added 0.24%.

Both indexes, however, have been performing poorly since the start of the year. The MBI-10 has lost nearly 34%, while the Bulgarian index has shed nearly 42% in 2008.

Montenegro's index has recorded the biggest decline in the region since the start of the year - 49.2%.

Ukraine's PFTS posted last week's biggest loss of 9.9%, followed by Romania's ВЕТ, which shed 4.7%.

Trading on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) was active over the past week. The turnover jumped by 455% week on week to 59.23 mln leva as a result of several large-scale transactions.

The number of the deals went up by a mere 17.19% to 4,281 compared to the previous week. The combined market capitalization of the companies listed on BSE stood at 20.29 bln leva last week.

The value of the transactions in bonds amounted to 1.68 mln leva last week, up by 104.1% week on week.

No short selling or margin trade deals were sealed last week.

Trading over the past week was marked by the release of the consolidated reports of the companies for the first half of the year.

* Data by Karoll