Small-caps head rise
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general price index closed on Friday at 1,541.12 points, a gain of 23.18 points, or 1.53 percent from the previous week’s close, after registering heavy losses on Monday, which were redressed by four consecutive positive sessions. Weekly turnover fell from 396 million in the previous week to 373 million euros, an average per session of 75 million. Among the Financial Times indices, the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 registered the largest gains, advancing 4.19 percent to 393.4 points. The FTSE/ASE Mid-40 followed with gains of 3.53 percent, while the blue chip FTSE/ASE-20 gained least, with 1.07 percent. The FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the above three indices, rose 1.81 percent. All sectoral indices, except those of non-metallic minerals and cement, and telecommunications ended in positive territory. IT equipment-solutions led with hefty gains of 10.20 percent, followed by publishing and printing firms, which advanced 7.38 percent, information technology with 5.93 percent and wholesale commerce with 5.76 percent. Telecoms receded 0.07 percent and non-metallic minerals and cement lost 1.09 percent. Of the 368 individual stocks traded 299 gained, 51 registered losses and 18 remained unchanged. Gainers were led by Cor-fil’s preferred stock with 46.27 percent and Lantek Communications with 30.43 percent. At the losing end were Allatini and ANEK’s preferred stock, which fell 14.89 and 14.51 percent respectively. OTE Telecom was again the most marketable security, with an average turnover of 13 million euros per session. Coca-Cola HBC followed with 4.2 million.
