Construction chips offset bank stocks’ drop
For a second day of trade the local stock market produced a balanced picture on Monday, with rising stocks outnumbering losers while the benchmark contained its earlier contraction, posting a loss of just 0.11 percent at the end of the session.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 925.49 points, just down on Friday’s 926.55 points. The large-cap FTSE/ATHEX-25 contracted by 0.89 percent to 301.12 points, but the mid-cap index expanded by 1.76 percent.
Banks took a heavy beating as they entered a week of serious decisions: Alpha is holding a general shareholders meeting on Tuesday after suffering a 1.23 percent fall. Piraeus follows on Thursday, after dropping 9.76 percent, but the two lenders’ losses were dwarfed by those of National (down 17.05 percent) and Eurobank (21.14 percent).
The prospect of works restarting on the country’s major highway projects boosted construction chips, with Ellaktor leading the way with a rise of 8.59 percent. Piraeus Port Authority grew 7.11 percent.
In total 72 stocks posted gains, 67 suffered losses and 15 remained unchanged.
Turnover amounted to 54 million euros, down from last Friday’s 57.7 million.
