ATHEX: Solid end to a week of stock gains

The unexpected good news about the contained contraction of the economy (on an annual basis) in the first quarter of the year gave stocks on the Greek bourse a late push on Friday, taking the benchmark back above 900 points, at the end of a week with particularly thin trade – and it is only the first week of June.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 901.60 points, adding 0.74% to Thursday’s 894.94 points. On a weekly basis it advanced 1.58%.

The large-cap FTSE 25 index expanded 0.89% to close at 2,188.07 points and the banks index improved 2.18%.

Eurobank increased 3.74%, OTE telecom collected 2.23%, National Bank earned 2.20%, Piraeus Bank fetched 1.73% and Mytilineos grabbed 1.32%, while Ellaktor gave up 1.36%, Titan Cement dropped 0.80%, PPC eased 0,78% and Terna Energy lost 0.68%.

In total 74 stocks enjoyed gains, 36 took losses and 23 remained unchanged.

Turnover amounted to 57.4 million euros, up from Thursday’s €48.5 million.

In Nicosia, the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange decreased 0.70% to close at 63.44 points.