Blue chips lead rise
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index closed last Friday at 2,358.05 points, a rise of 26.69 points, or 1.14 percent, from the previous week’s close. It was a narrowly based rise, supported mainly by bank stocks. Turnover dropped significantly, to 415.54 million euros, an average of 83.11 million euros per session, from 96.83 million the previous week. Reversing the previous week’s trend, the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips gained 1.82 percent to close at 1,263.78 points, but mid- and small-caps declined 0.84 percent and 2.57 percent, respectively. The composite FTSE/ASE-140 index rose 1.15 percent to close at 2,729.77 points. Twelve out of the 18 sectoral indices declined. The biggest gainers were banks (2.97 percent), holding companies (1.92 percent) and investment firms (0.96 percent). The biggest losses were sustained by textiles (6.27 percent), publishing and printing (3.70 percent) and information technology (2.34 percent). Among individual stocks, gainers were led by Aspis Bank (16.67 percent), M.L.S. Informatics (16.55 percent) and CPI (14.71 percent). Only another four stocks had double-digit gains. The top losers were Elton (39.11 percent), Naoussa Spinning Mills (23.36 percent), Alfa Alfa Holdings (21.28 percent) and Allatini Ceramics (21.18 percent). The week’s most heavily traded stock was Public Power Corporation, with an average turnover per session of 11.55 million euros. It was followed by National Bank (7.38 million) and bottler Coca-Cola HBC (7.13 million).
