ATHEX: Bourse starts new era with blue chip drop
The first day of trading at the Greek bourse under its new status as an advanced emerging market in FTSE’s books ended with losses for most blue chips. The slide was driven by banks, which gave up 4.74 percent on Monday, although rising stocks outnumbered the losers. The upcoming Easter holidays in many countries took a toll on trading volume.
In its fourth consecutive southbound session, the Athens Exchange general index closed at 541.70 points, shedding 1.25 percent from Friday’s 548.58 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index contracted 2.12 percent to end at 147.36 points.
It appears that it will take a strong sign that the completion of the bailout review is close at hand for the benchmark to return above the 630-point level.
Alpha Bank was the only systemic bank to register gains (0.58 percent), as Piraeus gave up 10.11 percent, Eurobank lost 8.25 percent and National conceded 6.49 percent. Among other blue chips, Jumbo dropped 5.41 percent, while Grivalia Properties advanced 2.94 percent and Mytilineos expanded 2.53 percent.
In total 49 stocks went up, 44 sustained losses and 16 remained unchanged.
Turnover amounted to 60.3 million euros, while last Friday it had reached 304.9 million.
In Nicosia the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange declined 1.13 percent to 68.26 points.
