Index drops below 1,700
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) benchmark general index last week dropped 60.04 points, or 3.43 percent, ending on Friday at 1,690.93 points. All five sessions ended with losses. Total trade volume dropped to 484.55 million euros (an average per session of 96.91 million) from 537.95 million the week before. Small-capitalization stocks suffered the most, with the FTSE/ASE-80 losing 3.95 percent. The blue-chip FTSE/ASE-20 lost 3.88 percent, and the mid-cap FTSE/ASE-40, 3.50 percent. As a result, the FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the above three indices, closed 3.82 percent lower, at 1,939.70 points. All sectoral indices registered losses except textiles, which advanced 3.45 percent. IT equipment-solutions suffered the biggest loss (9.70 percent). It was followed by food and beverages (6.70 percent), information technology (6.56 percent) and basic metals (5.56 percent). Among the 370 individual shares traded, 279 suffered losses, 72 ended with gains, and 19 remained unchanged. Lannet led the few winners with a hefty 42.27 percent rise. Five more stocks rose more than 20 percent: Alter TV (30.94 percent), Epilektos (28.23 percent), Altec (25 percent), Evrofarma (23.29 percent) and Microland Computers (20.45 percent). At the laggards’ end, Viosol’s preferred stock suffered the heaviest losses (27.27 percent). It was followed by the preferred shares of Xifias Fisheries and Stabilton (25.37 percent and 25.33 percent, respectively) and the common stock of Zamba (20.72 percent). OTE Telecom was the most heavily traded stock, with an average turnover of 8.23 million euros per session; it was followed by soccer pools and lottery firm OPAP (6.88 million).
