ECONOMY

Small-caps lead weekly gains

The Athens Stock Exchange general index ended the week at 2,763.30 points, 108.47 points or 4.09 percent higher than the previous week’s close. Four of the week’s five sessions ended with gains. Total trade volume was 923 million euros, with a daily average of 184.6 million. All FTSE indexes showed gains. The biggest gains were recorded by the FTSE/ASE-80 of small-caps (5.15 percent), while the mid-cap FTSE/ASE-40 followed closely with 4.87 percent. The blue chip index FTSE/ASE-20 gained 3.7 percent to close at 1,531.45 points. All sectoral indices except one ended with gains. The highest gains were recorded by publishing and printing (7.55 percent), IT equipment and solutions (7.46 percent) and textiles (7.39 percent). The exception, insurance stocks, lost 4.5 percent. Of the 366 stocks traded, 314 ended with gains, 44 registered losses and eight remained unchanged. The biggest gainer was Space Hellas (40.54 percent), followed by Alisida (37.11 percent) and Bitros Holdings (34.55 percent). The losers were led by Phoenix (17.54 percent), Sex Form (7.65 percent) and MLS Informatics (6.25 percent). OTE Telecom was the most heavily traded stock of the week, with an average daily turnover of 9.72 million euros. Asked for his view of what the next step in Afghanistan should be, he expressed the hope that there would be progress in removing the Taleban and above all that bin Laden and his associates would be found. In my opinion, the sooner Afghanistan acquires the appropriate government and humanitarian aid is brought into that unfortunate country, the better, he said. Lord Bach said the war was being waged on many fronts – military, political and diplomatic, apart from the question of humanitarian aid. The defeat of Al Qaeda and all those, such as the Taleban, who support it, is absolutely the top priority. And it doesn’t depend on anything else. It is a necessity after the (events of) September 11, he said.This article was compiled from a Greek translation of Lord Bach’s statements.

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