Index barely clears 2,000
The Athens Stock Exchange benchmark general index ended last week at 2,001.50 points, a loss of 37.88 points, or 1.86 percent, from the previous week’s close. Three of the week’s five sessions ended with losses. Total turnover dropped to 515.10 million euros, an average of 103 million euros per session, from 687.18 million the previous week. For the fifth week running, the greatest selling pressure fell on small-capitalization stocks. Thus, the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 index dropped 5.98 percent, the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 fell 3.08 percent and the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 1.64 percent to close at 1,009.13 points. The FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the previous three, fell 2.34 percent, to close at 2,325.26 points. All sectoral indices but one ended with losses. The exception was refineries, which gained 3.43 percent. The biggest losses were sustained by textiles (10.90 percent), publishing and printing (9.50 percent) and IT equipment & solutions (5.42 percent). Of the 372 stocks traded during the week, 313 ended with losses, 51 gained and eight remained unchanged. Gainers were led by European Reliance (17.94 percent), Bank of Greece (17.48 percent) and Vernikos Holdings (14.85 percent). The biggest losers were Euroholdings (23.34 percent), Alfa Alfa Energy (22.47 percent) and Viosol’s preferred shares (22.08 percent). Alpha Bank was the most heavily traded stock, with an average daily turnover of 6.37 million euros, followed by Public Power Corporation (5.71 million) and OTE (5.70 million).
