Slight gains seen in the last pre-Christmas session
Equities ended slightly higher in positive territory on Monday in indifferent pre-Christmas trade, with the benchmark general index gaining 0.73 percent to 2,583.03 points. Analysts said there was little in the way of Christmas cheer on Monday as retail investors were largely absent and most trading related to end-of-year window dressing. There’s no buying interest ahead of the holidays with only professionals and domestic institutionals active, resulting in lots of block trading, said analyst Thomas Achimastos at Kyklos Securities. The bourse will reopen for trade today. Blue chips gained 0.66 percent to 1,424.35 points with telecom stocks adding 0.34 percent as heavyweight OTE gained 1.46 percent to 18.04 euros. Banks gained 0.35 percent with bellwether National easing 0.07 percent to 26.82 euros and Alpha Bank flat at 20.22 euros. Piraeus Bank rose 1.86 percent to 9.88 euros after news that it would team up with ING Groep in the bancassurance sector. Mid-caps gained 0.88 percent and small-caps 1.29 percent. Turnover was 196.84 million euros. (Reuters) Ignorance of the language and isolation render the women vulnerable. Fear, pain, anxiety and rape are a daily reality for foreign prostitutes.
