Strong telecoms help lift index up 0.11 percent
Firm telecoms lifted the Athens bourse into positive territory yesterday as European gains in the sector rubbed off on OTE Telecom, lifting the index heavyweight more than 1 percent. The Athens bourse’s benchmark general index ended up 0.11 percent at 2,682.69 points after trading in a tight range. Telecoms followed the sector’s positive trend in Europe. OTE is also recovering after sliding from a recent year high, said analyst Manos Mavrogenis at Laiki Attalos Securities. Telecoms gained 1.09 percent and OTE, which reached a year high on November 19, advanced 1.05 percent to 19.30 euros. Cellular operator Panafon gained 1.77 percent to 5.74 euros and rival CosmOTE, a subsidiary of OTE, firmed 0.67 percent to 11.94 euros. Telecom equipment manufacturer Intracom lost 3.61 percent to 14.40 euros, bringing its losses in the last two sessions to more than 9 percent. Mid-caps on the FTSE/ASE-40 index rose 0.25 percent while small-caps shed 0.14 percent. Blue chips retreated 0.09 percent to 1,472.02 points. Turnover was 124.48 million euros. Losers beat winners 168 to 138.(Reuters) Why does Arafat uses this policy? In my view he believed in the past and he believes today that violence pays, Ganor declared. But he was quick to assign blame to the Israeli side rather than Arafat. By the way, I don’t blame Arafat for that. I blame the Israeli governments. All Israeli governments, from the late Yitzhak Rabin, to Benjamin Netanyahu and until Ehud Barak.
