ATHEX: Bank chips advance by 22 pct in a week

The growth momentum carried the benchmark and the majority of local stocks to a further high for a seventh session in a row (the first time since August 2014), despite the predominantly declining trend of blue chips, and particularly of the core banks on Friday. Yet buying orders eventually outnumbered selling ones, as the third straight week of growth came to an end.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 552.84 points, adding 0.27 percent to Thursday’s 551.36 points. On a weekly basis it advanced 9.02 percent.

However, the large-cap FTSE 25 index contracted 0.50 percent to end at 149.93 points, with the bank index sliding 4.28 percent on the day, although it posted weekly gains of almost 22 percent.

Folli Follie climbed 6.82 percent, while Eurobank declined 6.63 percent and National Bank dropped 6.33 percent.

In total 59 stocks enjoyed gains, 41 reported losses and 25 were non-movers.

Turnover came to 72.7 million euros, up from Thursday’s 64.3 million.

In Nicosia the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange gained just 0.06 percent to reach 67.67 points.