Mid-caps lead gains
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index ended at 1,858.90 points on Friday, up 28.36 points, or 1.55 percent, from the previous week’s close, despite three of the previous week’s five sessions having ended with losses. The total volume of shares traded reached 465.88 million euros (an average daily volume of 93.18 million euros), against 389.09 million the week before. The strongest buying interest was for medium-capitalization stocks, which led the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 index 2.52 percent higher. The small-capitalization index (FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80) rose 1.84 percent and the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips 1.06 percent. Most sectoral indices recorded gains. IT equipment and solutions companies were the biggest gainers (5.57 percent), followed by basic metals (5.10 percent), wholesale commerce (4.43 percent) and publishing and printing companies (4.33 percent). On the other hand, insurance firms fell 3.75 percent and non-metallic minerals lost 2.21 percent. Of the 370 stocks traded last week, 241 gained, 104 fell and 25 remained unchanged. Perseus was the top gainer (35 percent), followed by Despec Tech. Holdings (34 percent) and Elfico (25.36 percent). Agrotiki Life Insurance led losers by declining 10.83 percent, followed by construction firm Terna (9.55 percent). The most heavily traded stock by far was again OTE Telecom, with an average value of 23.49 million euros per session, followed by National Bank with 4.84 million and Vodafone-Panafon with 4.55 million.
