Small-caps lead decline
The Athens Stock Exchange benchmark general index ended last week at 2,039.38 points, a loss of 43.40 points or 2.08 percent from the previous week’s close. Three of the week’s five sessions ended with losses. Total turnover dropped to 687.18 million euros, an average of 137.44 million euros per session, from 1.030 billion the previous week. This time, there were no deals as big as the sale of Alpha Bank shares to institutional investors. For the fourth week running, the greatest selling pressure fell on small-capitalization stocks. Thus, the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 index dropped 3.46 percent, the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 2.08 percent to close at 1,025.95 points and the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 fell 1.42 percent. The FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the previous three, fell 2.12 percent, to close at 2,380.89 points. All sectoral indices ended with losses. The biggest were sustained by textiles (8.01 percent), insurance (5.84 percent) and non-metallic minerals and cement (5.02 percent). Out of the 371 stocks traded during the week, 294 ended with losses, 61 gained and 11 remained unchanged. Gainers were led by Naftemboriki (11.85 percent), Sarandis (10.24 percent) and Viosol (10 percent). The biggest losers were ELVE (21.48 percent), Sarantopoulos (19.23 percent) and Lanacam’s preferred shares (18 percent). Hellenic Exchanges was the most heavily traded stock, with an average daily turnover of 17.10 million euros, followed by OTE (7.92 million) and Alpha Bank (7.90 million).
