September saw foreign investors trimming their positions in Greek stocks as weak global equity market sentiment helped wipe some 18 billion euros off the Athens bourse.

Figures from the Hellenic Exchanges group, the operator of the Athens bourse, showed that foreign portfolios held 51.1 percent of Greek stocks at the end of September, down from 51.4 percent in the previous month.

“In September, foreign investors were sellers with a total capital outflow of 246.1 million euros,” the group said in a statement yesterday.

Locally based investors, on the other hand, upped their equity positions to 47.7 percent of total market equity from 47.5 percent previously.

The capitalization of Greek stocks in September reached 106.7 billion euros, down from 124.5 billion euros in the previous month, Hellenic Exchanges added.

In September 2007, the total value of Greek shares stood at 195.5 billion euros, it added.