ASE follows European bourses, rises 2.26 percent
Strong European bourses gave Greek blue chips a reason to climb 2.45 percent yesterday, while engineering firm Metka advanced on news it will help manufacture German tanks for Greece. Ferry operators Strintzis and ANEK both surged about 7 percent after saying they were looking into teaming up ahead of the 2004 deregulation of domestic routes. «Early futures trade pointed to a winning session, coming after consecutive losing sessions. There was no significant slippage and it could carry over to Tuesday. Foreign markets helped sentiment,» said broker Dimitris Sideris. Blue-chip gains boosted the Athens benchmark general index 2.26 percent to 2,419.51 points. Metka, a subsidiary of metallurgy and engineering group Mytilineos, gained 6.31 percent to 4.38 euros while Mytilineos gained 4.59 percent to 4.10 euros. Strintzis, a subsidiary of Attica Enterprises, gained 6.99 percent to 1.53 euros while ANEK added 7.11 percent to 2.11 euros. The FTSE/ASE-40 index of mid-caps gained 2.33 percent and small-caps rose 2.28 percent. Total turnover was 111.02 million euros on volume of 22.5 million shares. (Reuters) … and industrial output falls
