ASE surges to new high
The Athens Stock Exchange benchmark general index ended last week at a new year-high of 2,310.52 points, a rise of 119.71 points or 5.46 percent from the previous week’s close. Three of the week’s five sessions ended with gains. With the end of the peak holiday season, turnover rebounded. Total turnover exceeded 1 billion euros, an average of 202.02 million euros per session. Investor interest was almost equally distributed among all types of companies. The FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 gained 6.50 percent, the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips rose 6.21 percent to close at 1,164.19 points and the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 index rose 6.06 percent. The FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the previous three, gained 6.22 percent, to close at 2,747.33 points. All sectoral indices ended with gains. Top gainers were retail commerce (14.25 percent), banks (9.27 percent) and construction companies (7.90 percent), which so far have underperformed. Out of 375 stocks traded during the week, 296 ended with gains, 64 lost ground and 15 remained unchanged. Gainers were led by Veterin (30.58 percent), Elve (26.47 percent) and Emborikos Desmos (24.05 percent). The biggest losers were Kepenos Mills (14.72 percent), Alter TV (13.58 percent) and the preferred shares of Ideal (12 percent). Alpha Bank was the most heavily traded stock, with an average daily turnover of 11.92 million euros, beating OTE Telecom (10.17 million) into second place. They were followed by OPAP (9.69 million), National Bank (8.16 million) and Coca-Cola HBC (7.78 million).
