ATHEX: Bourse builds on Thursday’s stock gains

Non-bank blue chip buyers saved the day at Athinon Avenue on Friday, making up for the failure of bank stocks to improve their weekly figures, leading to reduced trading volume. The positive corporate results for the year’s first quarter have raised investor awareness, resulting in gains for many stocks this week that were previously overlooked.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 907.08 points, adding 0.85% to Thursday’s 899.42 points. On a weekly basis it improved 1.12%.

The large-cap FTSE 25 index expanded 0.87% to close at 2,199.51 points, though the banks index contracted 0.53%.

Athens Water advanced 5.11%, Aegean Air benefited from the opening of tourism to rise 4.26%, Hellenic Petroleum collected 3.05%, Titan Cement earned 2.93%, Motor Oil fetched 2.35%, Mytilineos grabbed 2.27% and Jumbo grew 1.72%, as Eurobank fell 1.64%.

In total 68 stocks registered gains, 39 sustained losses and 24 remained unchanged.

Turnover amounted to 83.1 million euros, down from Thursday’s €90.1 million.

In Nicosia, the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange increased 0.31% to 64.29 points.