Index ends week lower
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) benchmark general index on Friday ended a run of six consecutive weeks of gains, closing at 1,712.71 points, 0.47 percent lower than the previous week’s close, after three sessions with gains and two with losses. Total trade volume reached 642.61 million euros, an average per session of 128.52 million euros. Of the Financial Times indices, the mid-cap FTSE/ASE-40 came under the strongest pressure, ending 1.18 percent lower at 179.36 points. Blue chips on the FTSE/ASE-20 index lost 0.36 percent, while the FTSE/ASE-80 of small-caps gained 0.72 percent. As a result, the FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the above three, declined 0.39 percent. Sectoral indices put up a mixed performance, with heavyweight banks losing 0.94 percent. Holding companies registered the biggest losses, ending 3.24 percent lower, while publishing and printing and non-metallic minerals (cement) receded 3.01 and 2.81 percent respectively. By contrast, food and beverages and IT equipment solutions gained 5.77 and 4.51 percent respectively. Among the 367 individual shares traded, 194 suffered losses, 148 ended with gains and 25 remained unchanged. Gainers were led by Varveris-Moda Bagno (41.46 percent) and European Reliance insurance (38.52 percent). The top losers were Lymberis Publications (-17.46 percent) and Neorion Shipyards (16.85 percent). OTE Telecoms emerged again as the most marketable security of the week, with an average trade volume per session of 11.108 million euros, and was followed by Alpha Bank with 9.39 million and National Bank with 8.59 million euros.
