ATHEX: Weekly rise of 3.6% on local bourse

Greek stocks contained their growth on Friday, giving up most of their mid-session growth, but the benchmark still ended higher. For a second straight day there was the phenomenon of mid-caps outperforming, which is testament to the effort by traders to identify potential opportunities in smaller stocks before the country secures investment grade and appears on institutional investors’ radars.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,261.67 points, adding 0.28% to Thursday’s 1,258.17 points. On a weekly basis it improved 3.60%.

The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 0.27% to end at 3,062.57 points, and mid-caps earned 1.41%.

The banks index advanced 0.23%, as Alpha collected 2.34%, Piraeus augmented 0.68% and Eurobank rose 0.13%, while National gave up 1.97%. ElvalHalcor climbed 3.62% and Lamda Development fetched 2.42%, just as Ellaktor dropped 4.12%.

In total 83 stocks posted gains, 29 suffered losses and 22 remained unchanged.

Turnover amounted to 127.4 million euros, down from Thursday’s €164.7 million.

In Nicosia, the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange increased 2.09% to 114.65 points.