National Bank capitalization plummets on bourse
The completion of the relegation process for six Greek stocks in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) equity system sent their capitalization plummeting while turnover at the local bourse soared to a 10-month high on Thursday. However, gains posted by several blue chips helped the benchmark index rebound.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 525.45 points, expanding by 2.77 percent from Wednesday?s closing figure of 511.29 points. The main index declined by 24.93 percent over the month of May.
The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index added 1.80 percent to close at 188.84 points yesterday.
The six stocks that were relegated are National Bank, OTE telecom, EYDAP, Sidenor, Hellenic Postbank and Fourlis. National saw its stock shed 12.93 percent and its capitalization drop to 965 million euros, while OTE dropped 9.09 percent, with its capitalization now at 637 million.
After National?s decline, only three stocks on the local bourse can boast capitalization of more than 1 billion euros: Coca-Cola HBC, Hellenic Petroleum and OPAP.
Coca-Cola boosted the main index with gains of 12.35 percent and OPAP climbed 7.23 percent.
State-owned ATEbank on Thursday decided to postpone the publication of its financial report for 2011 until August 31, as it is still awaiting the details on the bank recapitalization process that the new government will have to determine. The lender suffered losses of 8.88 percent on the bourse.
In total, 56 stocks recorded gains, 62 posted losses and 16 remained unchanged.
Turnover rocketed to 168.2 million euros, from Wednesday?s modest 36 million.
