Bourse suffers losses all round
The Athens Stock Exchange general index ended the week at 2,571.71 points, 131.40 points or 4.90 percent higher than the previous week’s close. Total trading volume was 985.74 million euros, with a daily average of 145.09 million, against 197.15 million the previous week. All three FTSE indices showed losses. The biggest were recorded by the FTSE/ASE-80 index of small caps (8.07 percent), while the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips lost 4.88 percent and mid-caps on the FTSE/ASE-40 index lost 5.80 percent. All sectoral indices but one ended with losses. The exception, namely insurance stocks, gained 0.67 percent. The biggest losers were wholesale trade (8.88 percent), textiles (8.70 percent) and publishing and printing (8.62 percent). Of the 364 stocks traded, 20 ended with gains, 337 registered losses and 7 remained unchanged. The biggest gainer was Domus Investments with 19.91 percent, followed by Pavlides (13.84 percent) and Iktinos Hellas (21.36 percent). The losers were led by Plias, down by 23.13 percent, Technodomi (21.89 percent) and Euromedica (20.63 percent). Newly-listed Public Power Corporation was the most heavily traded stock for the week, with an average daily volume of 92.87 million euros. OTE was second with 14.28 million. There is only one possible risk – a complete breakdown in the talks, which would lead to Turkey provoking a military crisis before Cyprus joins the EU. The question is whether the moderate line taken by Turkey over the past few weeks, even if sincere, will last until the accession procedure is complete, or whether Turkey will eventually carry out its long-standing threat to provoke a crisis when Cyprus joins the EU.
