Index climbs above 1,600
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general price index closed on Friday at 1,603.79 points, a gain of 62.67 points, or 4.07 percent, from the previous week’s close. Four of the five sessions ended with gains; the exception was Tuesday. Weekly turnover rose from 373 million euros in the previous week to 447.35 million, an average per session of 88.47 million. Among the Financial Times indices, the small-cap FTSE/ASE-80 once again registered the largest gains, advancing 7.61 percent to 423.34 points. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips followed with gains of 4.74 percent, rising to 773.58 points, while the mid-cap FTSE/ASE-40 gained least (4.55 percent). The FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the above three indices, rose 5 percent. All sectoral indices registered gains. Textiles led the way, rising an impressive 20.28 percent. IT equipment-solutions, the previous week’s top-gaining sector, rose 8.93 percent and banks, 8.23 percent. The weakest gains were made by retail traders (1.32 percent) and telecommunications (1.39 percent). Of the 369 individual stocks traded, 316 gained, 49 registered losses and 4 remained unchanged. Gainers were led by Klonatex’s preferred and common stock with gains of 92.55 percent and 85.47 percent, respectively, and Kor-fil’s common stock, which rose 60.67 percent. At the losing end were Stabilton’s and Ideal’s preferred stock, which fell 27.27 percent and 21.48 percent, respectively. OTE Telecom was again the most marketable security, with an average turnover of 9.53 million euros per session. National Bank followed, with an average of 4.23 million.
