New large-cap index opens with gains as banks lead rise
The small surprise that the Public Debt Management Agency had in store on Monday for bondholders, when it offered a slightly higher price than expected for their government paper in the debt buyback process, sent stocks up in the local bourse’s opening session for the year’s last month.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 819.39 points, adding 1.27 percent to Friday’s closing figure of 809.14 points.
The new FTSE/ATHEX Large Cap 25 index closed at 285.78 points, expanding by 2.36 percent from the blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 closure on Friday. The new index now includes Frigoglass, Intralot, TERNA Energy, Hellenic Exchanges, Piraeus Port Authority and Eurobank Properties, while Cyprus Popular Bank has been relegated to the mid-cap index.
Banks added 5.82 percent, led by Piraeus (up 11.46 percent) and Bank of Cyprus (7.69 percent). Coca-Cola HBC gave up 1.85 percent.
In total 74 stocks posted gains, 58 suffered losses and 20 were unchanged.
Turnover amounted to 45.5 million euros, the lowest of the last five sessions, down from last Friday’s 59.8 million.
