ATHEX: Benchmark rises to fresh 5-year high

The benchmark of the Greek stock market continued its course toward the 1,000-point mark with a sixth consecutive session of moderate gains on Tuesday, largely thanks to the closing auctions, which offset all the morning losses and split stocks down the middle between winners and losers.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 942.27 points, a fresh five-year high, adding 0.22 percent to Monday’s 940.20 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index expanded less than 0.01 percent to 2,352.70 points and the mid-cap index improved 0.21 percent.

However, the banks index contracted 0.65 percent, due to Eurobank’s 1.57 percent slide and Alpha’s 0.80 percent contraction, while Piraeus grew 0.67 percent and National climbed just 0.07 percent.

GEK Terna jumped 5.70 percent on news that its consortium with US firm Mohegan will land the Elliniko casino permit. This was its fourth day of gains in a row.

In total 48 stocks headed higher, another 48 suffered losses and 31 remained unchanged.

Turnover amounted to 120.4 million euros – half of which concerned prearranged packages – against Monday’s 63.5 million.

In Nicosia the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange rebounded 0.95 percent to close at 67.86 points.