Cheery beginning, but trade is still thin
Equities rose yesterday in thin post-New Year trade with telecoms equipment maker Intracom advancing 6 percent as it became able to buy its own shares to support a share price that fell 70 percent last year. Intracom gained as much as 30 cents yesterday, closing at 4.52 euros, or up 6.1 percent, while the Athens bourse general index gained 1.64 percent to 1,777.09 points. The bourse’s new index, the FTSE/ASE-140, which groups the 140 stocks making up the existing blue chip, mid-cap and small-cap FTSE indices, gained 35.38 points to end at 2,035.38, a rise of 1.77 percent. Turnover totaled 44.72 million euros, lower than the 53.58 million euros traded on Tuesday, with 16.7 million shares changing hands. Blue chips rose 1.12 percent to 873.59 points. Mid-caps gained 2.77 percent and small-caps rose 4.67 percent. Winners beat losers 293 to 32 with 23 shares unchanged on 348 traded. (Reuters)
