Stocks reverse earlier gains, end off 0.07 percent
Soft blue chips marginally outweighed small- and mid-cap gains on the Athens bourse on Thursday as buying on the back of a technical rebound ran out of steam late in the session. Brokers said trading was affected by window dressing on the last day of the quarter, while the market remained on its downward path, showing a loss for the eighth straight session. «From a technical point of view, the market is oversold. We have entered a sharp downward trend so we could see it even more oversold before a sustainable reversal appears,» said Nikos Galoussis, head of derivatives at Kappa Securities. The Athens bourse benchmark general index ended off 0.07 percent at 2,280.72 points and fell 1.5 percent for the week overall. The market was closed yesterday for the Western Good Friday holiday. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips eased 0.45 percent to 1,229.21 points. The FTSE/ASE-40 index, however, gained 0.99 percent and small-caps rose 0.81 percent. Banks lost 0.49 percent and telecoms 1.02 percent. Turnover was 107.42 million euros on 21.7 million shares traded. (Reuters) In an open letter to six Cabinet ministers, the Greek Steel Importers-Exporters Association yesterday voiced concern over the assignment of metal constructions for the Olympic Games to foreign contractors, emphasizing «the conspicuous marginalization of all (domestic) business sectors» and the «medium- to long-term negative repercussions of these choices.»
