Small-caps take big hit
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index closed at 2,365.40 points on Friday, a loss of 54.53 points or 2.25 percent, after falling in three of the week’s five sessions. Total turnover was 703.36 million euros, down from 813.73 million euros the previous week, with each session averaging 140.67 million. All FTSE indices fell, but it was the FTSE/ASE Small Cap 80 that felt the greatest pressure, dropping 7.71 percent. The FTSE/ASE Mid-40 fell 4.97 percent and the FTSE/ASE-20 of blue chips resisted much better but still fell 1.35 percent, to 1,245.36 points. The composite FTSE/ASE-140 fell 2.38 percent, to 2,747.87 points. All sectoral indices but one registered losses. The exception, telecommunications, made marginal gains (0.03 percent). Hardest hit were textiles (8.92 percent), followed by construction (8.77 percent), publishing and printing (7.54 percent), information technology (6.72 percent) and insurance (6.47 percent). Among the 369 stocks traded, 323 declined, 34 advanced and 12 remained unchanged. Elviemek led all advancers, rising 59.56 percent. The only other two stocks with double-figure gains were Karamolengos Bakery (16.47 percent) and M&A Karatzis (14.14 percent). Kepenos Mills led the losers, with a 34.31 percent decline. It was followed by Intramet (33.68 percent), Mathios (26.92 percent) and Centric Multimedia (26.92 percent). Alpha Bank was the most heavily traded stock with an average daily turnover of 18.49 million euros. It was followed by National Bank of Greece (11.32 million) and mobile telecom firm CosmOTE (10.13 million).
