ATHEX: Losses contained at end of trade

On the face of it, the Athens benchmark’s almost 3 percent decline on Tuesday looks very negative for the Greek market, given that it came on creditor pressure and followed a nearly 8 percent slide on Monday. However, many investors will have breathed a sigh of relief, seeing as the index only sustained half the losses it had incurred on the day it plunged below 440 points, while a strong finish to the session contained the drop and pointed to a rebound for Wednesday morning.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 450.83 points, the lowest since October 1989, shedding 2.89 percent from Monday’s 464.23 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index contracted 3.84 percent to end at 116.85 points – yet another all-time low.

With the banks index slumping to just 22.61 points, after conceding 5.56 percent on Tuesday, the gallows humor at Athinon Avenue saw some traders joking that after the reverse stock splits during the banks’ recapitalizations last year it was now time their entire index was subject to a reverse split too. Eurobank lost 12.11 percent and National fell 9.72 percent, but PPC advanced 3.21 percent.

In total 34 stocks showed gains, 71 took losses and 24 closed unchanged.

Turnover amounted to 96.2 million euros, down from Monday’s 97.4 million.

In Nicosia the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange gave up 1.40 percent to 65.46 points.