Technical Olympic woes shake mid-cap stocks
Shares fell 2 percent yesterday on what traders said was heavy profit-taking on banks on the back of European sluggishness, while mid-caps were rattled by a political controversy that weighed heavily on two stocks. «There was pressure on banks after their rally recently; the market in general looks like it might head lower,» said Theodore Avramides, institutional sales broker at Artion Securities. «Technically, the fact that we broke through the support level of 2,438 points is not good,» he added. The general share index ended 2.03 percent lower at 2,433.51 points. Construction firm Technical Olympic plunged 17.37 percent to 3.52 euros after the company got caught in the middle of a political controversy over a land deal that would see villas built in a supposedly protected area. The company has denied press reports in a stock market filing late on Friday. Technical Olympic’s subsidiary Mochlos fell 16.88 percent, to 0.64 euros, dragging down the mid-cap index by 3.27 percent. Trading volume rose to 184.55 million euros, with 35.5 million shares changing hands. Decliners led advancers 294 to 37, with 22 stocks ending unchanged. (Reuters)
