Capital gains bill weighs on local stocks
The government’s refusal to heed the market’s warnings and make changes to the draft law on the capital gains tax for stock transactions cast a heavy shadow on the local bourse on Friday as most stocks took a beating on significantly higher turnover.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,123.86 points, the lowest point since mid-October, slumping 2.74 percent from Thursday’s 1,155.53 points. It follows the first message from the market a week earlier when the index had declined by 2.54 percent. Weekly losses amounted to 2.89 percent.
The large-cap FTSE/ATHEX 25 contracted 2.32 percent on Friday to end at 371.77 points, though small-caps only slipped 0.32 percent.
Hellenic Petroleum suffered the biggest decline, giving up 8 percent, with OPAP gaming company dropping 7.38 percent. Only four blue chips went up, led by Corinth Pipeworks, which gained 3.37 percent, and Coca-Cola HBC, which grew by 2.90 percent.
In total 48 stocks reported gains, 100 registered losses and 21 remained unchanged.
Turnover amounted to 207.6 million euros, the highest in the last 18 sessions, up from Thursday’s 82.8 million euros.
