Shallow market fails to rise on ECB news
Stocks lost 0.78 percent yesterday as the market shrugged off a European Central Bank (ECB) rate cut while the ongoing public offering in Public Power Corporation (PPC) drained liquidity. The Athens bourse benchmark general index dropped to 1,844.75 points and failed to track advancing European bourses. Turnover eased to 85.48 million euros from 100 million euros on Wednesday. «The market does not have the strength to follow European markets after the ECB rate cut, mainly due to a lack of liquidity which is attributable to PPC’s public offering,» said Andreas Karalis, analyst at Merit Securities. PPC’s public offering, of up to 13 percent of the company, ends today. Bottler Coca-Cola HBC (CCHBC) bucked the trend, gaining 0.44 percent to 13.82 euros, after it tumbled about 10 percent this week. Mid-caps lost 0.99 percent and small-caps fell 1.97 percent. Losers beat winners 287 to 51, with 25 shares unchanged on 363 traded. (Reuters)
