ATHEX: Moderate rise after strong start

For a third consecutive day the majority of Greek stocks started off aggressively with significant gains on Tuesday, but during the session the buying spree appeared to drop a gear and the benchmark settled once again for rather moderate gains, coming off last week’s three-month lows. Part of the phenomenon of the rise losing steam on the day is attributed to the swing from black to red of blue chip PPC.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 840.69 points, adding 1.07% to Monday’s 831.81 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 1.30%, ending at 2,027.26 points.

This time the banks index outperformed, jumping 4.30%. Eurobank grew 5.83%, National climbed 4%, Alpha earned 3.49% and Piraeus collected 2.42%.

Mytilineos advanced 4.25%, but Coca-Cola HBC fell 2.02% and Public Power Corporation shrank 1.24%.

In total 70 stocks secured gains, 38 suffered losses and 18 remained unchanged.

Turnover amounted to 54.9 million euros, up from Monday’s €40.2 million.

In Nicosia, the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange decreased 0.23% to close at 69.66 points.