Blue chips lift market
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index closed last week at 2,445.16 points, a gain of 12.58 points, or 0.52 percent, from the previous week’s close. Weekly turnover fell to 787.86 million euros – representing an average per session of 157.57 million – against 918.17 million the week before. The market was driven by rising blue chips, while small-caps and especially mid-caps came under selling pressure. Among Financial Times indices, the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips gained 0.93 percent, to 1,271.12 points, the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 shed 3.12 percent and the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80, 2.13 percent. The FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the above three, gained 0.07 percent, to 2,876.70 points. Among sectoral indices, six gained and 11 showed a decline. Top gainers were IT equipment and solutions (2.29 percent), and banks (0.75 percent). Loss leaders were holding companies (5.02 percent), information technology (4.98 percent) and construction stocks (3.28 percent). Among 364 stocks traded, 251 lost ground, 99 gained and 14 remained stable. The greatest gains were made by Informatics (17.02 percent), the Sarandis sweets firm (13.87 percent) and state lottery and gaming company OPAP (12.31 percent). Top losers were construction firm European Technical (41.56 percent), fireproof materials firm Mathios (31.03 percent) and construction firm Domiki Kritis (28.10 percent). The week’s most marketable securities were OPAP, with an average daily turnover of 20.06 million euros, OTE Telecom (12.19 million) and National Bank (10.76 million). Due to a technical error the trading volume figures shown below are for the previous week.
