ASE follows European bourses’ slide
Equities lost more than 1 percent yesterday, moving in line with sliding European bourses while profit-taking dragged utility Public Power Corporation (PPC) 0.74 percent lower. PPC ended at 13.38 euros after gaining 3 percent last week while the Athens bourse benchmark general index fell 1.33 percent to 1,767.88 points. «There’s a continuation of pressure from the last few days with the focus on small- and mid-caps mainly due to weak international sentiment,» said Andreas Karalis, analyst at Merit Securities. Index heavyweight OTE Telecom failed to hold early gains, ending 1.30 percent off to 10.66 euros, underperforming European peers. Blue chips fell 1.05 percent to 873.36 points while banks slipped 0.76 percent. Mid-caps eased 1.84 percent and small-caps dropped 2.15 percent. Turnover was moderate at 74.28 million euros on 25.5 million shares traded. Losers beat winners 269 to 54 with 29 shares unchanged on 352 traded. (Reuters)
