ATHEX: Silent day, holy day in stock market

The year’s final trading week started off particularly quietly, with turnover on Tuesday at the Athens stock market being the lowest in more than two years. Even so, sellers retained the upper hand and saw the benchmark and a number of blue chips and mid-caps gain ground, as the year is drawing to an apparently positive close, with three sessions left.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 923.26 points, adding 0.22% to Friday’s 921.25 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 0.13% to end up at 2,2232.89 points.

The banks index grabbed 0.15%, as Eurobank earned 0.29%, Alpha fetched 0.20% and National edged up 0.08%, while Piraeus gave up 0.21%.

Quest Holdings grew 2.61%, Viohalco collected 1.88% and Aegean Airlines rose 1.47%, as Ellaktor parted with 2.10% and OTE Telecom eased 0.81%.

In total 54 stocks reported gains, 37 endured losses and 26 remained unchanged.

Turnover amounted to just 22 million euros, down from last Friday’s €36.1 million.

In Nicosia, the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange increased 0.15% to close at 89.46 points.