Foreigners buy more Greek stocks
The proportion of Greek blue chip shares owned by foreign investors rose in October compared to the previous month, data from the Athens Stock Exchange’s central securities depository showed yesterday. Foreign private and institutional investors owned 38.37 percent of shares in the constituents of the FTSE/ASE-20 blue chip index at the end of October, up from 37.02 percent in September. Their holdings were valued at 17.5 billion euros ($20.09 billion). Domestic investors – individuals, institutions and other legal entities – owned 61.62 percent of the 20 companies in the index, a total portfolio value of 28.1 billion euros at the end of October, the data showed. The Athens bourse’s blue chip index is up 27.4 percent in the year to date and it climbed about 5 percent in October. Foreign investors owned 29.91 percent of all listed companies on the exchange, up from 28.79 percent at the end of the third quarter – a total portfolio value of 24.3 billion euros. They held 28.65 percent at the end of last year. The data also showed a total of 2.24 million accounts in Greece, of which 98,176, or 4.37 percent, were active in October, having executed at least one trade. (Reuters)
