Shares go on retreating
The Athens Stock Exchange benchmark general index ended last week at 2,082.78 points, a loss of 63.61 points or 2.96 percent from the previous week’s close. The result was almost identical to the previous week’s. Three of the week’s five sessions ended with losses. Total turnover rose to 1.030 billion euros, an average of 206 million euros per session, from 837.69 million the previous week. A large portion of this involved the sale of a significant chunk – over 8 percent – of Alpha Bank shares to institutional shareholders. For the third week running, the greatest selling pressure fell on small-capitalization stocks. Thus, the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 index dropped 5.49 percent, the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 fell 3.98 percent and the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 2.96 percent to close at 1,047.78 points. The FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the previous three, fell 3.40 percent, to close at 2,432.47 points. All sectoral indices ended with losses. The biggest were sustained by IT equipment and solutions (8.16 percent), holding companies (6.85 percent) and construction (5.98 percent). Out of the 373 stocks traded during the week, 298 ended with losses, 61 gained and 14 remained unchanged. Gainers were led by Mathios (47.60 percent), Voyiatzoglou Systems (15.03 percent) and Domus Investments (12.22 percent). The biggest losers were Optima (20.75 percent), Elektroniki Athinon (20.55 percent) and Viosol’s preferred shares (19.54 percent). Alpha Bank was the most heavily traded stock, with an average daily turnover of 74.11 million euros, followed by Public Power Corporation with 8.04 million.
