Small gains in thin trade
The Athens Stock Exchange general index closed on Friday at 1,679.43 points, a rise of 5.23 points or 0.31 percent over the previous week’s close. Two of the week’s five sessions – Tuesday’s and Friday’s – ended with gains. Turnover took a steep plunge, from 301.75 million euros to about 221.2 million, an average of 44.24 million euros per session. There was only marginal change in both blue chips and small-capitalization stocks. The FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 gained 0.04 percent to close at 410.61 points, and the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips dropped 0.02 percent, to 832.66 points. The FTSE/ASE Mid-40 fell 1.07 percent. The new FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the previous three indices, dropped 0.18 percent to 1,887.30 points. The sectoral indices were evenly split between gainers and losers, with one – holding companies – remaining steady. Top gainers were retail commerce (4.45 percent) and refineries (2.12 percent). The biggest losses were sustained by IT equipment & solutions (2.94 percent) and information technology (2.88 percent). Of the 362 individual stocks traded this week, 177 registered losses, 154 gained and 31 remained unchanged. Gainers were led by Sp. Tasoglou-Delonghi (45.45 percent) and Intersat (35.71 percent). The top losers were IMAKO (38.41 percent) and Elbisco Holdings (18.25 percent). Once again, OTE Telecom was the most heavily traded stock, with an average turnover of 7.83 million euros per session. It was followed by state lottery company OPAP (3.14 million).
