Blue chips lead gains
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index ended 81.76 points, or 3.49 percent lower, last week, closing at 2,423.72 points on Friday. Weekly turnover rose to 789.58 million euros, an average per session of 157.92 million, from 682.34 million the previous week. All Financial Times indices rose this week. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips showed the biggest rise (4.49 percent), since it was the index heavyweights that mostly carried the market upward. The FTSE/ASE Mid-40 and the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 rose 1.48 percent and 1.67 percent, respectively. The FTSE/ASE-140, a composite of the above three, gained 3.90 percent. Thirteen out of 18 sectoral indices gained. The gainers were led by banks (6.54 percent), telecommunications (5.10 percent) and textiles (3.48 percent). Top losers were refineries (-4.52 percent), insurance firms (-4.32 percent) and basic metals (-2.80 percent). Of the 372 shares traded last week, 126 gained, 216 declined and 30 remained unchanged. Textile companies Varvaressos and Mouzakis led gainers, rising 35.57 percent and 25.77 percent, respectively. They were followed by pharmaceuticals firm Lavipharm (18.42 percent). Top losers were one of passenger shipper ANEK’s preferred shares (PR, ’96), which fell 40.40 percent. Copper pipe company Viosol’s preferred shares fell 13.33 percent, and Elbisco dropped 12.93 percent. The most marketable securities were OTE Telecom, with an average daily turnover of 16.72 million euros, the Public Power Corporation (15.33 million) and CosmOTE (12.88 million).
