Athens bourse slips 0.09 pct as OTE woes continue
Equities shed 0.09 percent yesterday on continued weakness in index heavyweight OTE Telecom while banks held on to mild gains after a strong start to the session. Brokers said investors were reshuffling portfolios after OTE lost more than 5 percent for the week as news of its new CEO weighed on the stock and the sector. «It was a second good day in banks but the market could not capitalize on this due to continued weakness in telecoms, especially in OTE,» said Manos Mavrogenis, analyst at Laiki Attalos Securities. Banks trimmed earlier gains to end up 0.15 percent. Alpha Bank firmed 0.43 percent to 18.52 euros while bellwether National gained 0.16 percent at 25.34 euros. The Athens benchmark general index ended at 2,384.22 points, ending the week off 63.89 points or 2.6 percent. Telecom stocks eased 1.09 percent. OTE lost 1.4 percent to end just below its 17-euro support level at 16.96. The FTSE/ASE index of blue chips edged ahead 0.02 percent to 1,293.86 points while the FTSE/ASE-40 index added 0.41 percent and small-caps slipped 0.13 percent. Total turnover was 79.52 million euros on 13.3 million shares traded. (Reuters) Leader
