Index drops below 2,300
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index closed last Friday at 2,290.90 points, a drop of 28.40 points, or 1.22 percent, from the previous week’s close. Turnover dropped to 454.57 million euros, an average of 90.91 million euros per session, from 107.46 million the previous week. All Financial Times indices registered losses. Hardest hit were small-capitalization stocks, which had risen over 5 percent the previous week. The FTSE/ASE small-cap 80 dropped 2.40 percent, the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 1.67 percent to close at 1,210.69 points, while the FTSE/ASE-40 of mid-caps lost 1.05 percent. The composite FTSE/ASE-140 index fell 1.65 percent to close at 2,634.36 points. Ten out of the 18 sectoral indices lost ground. The biggest losses were recorded by textiles (6.09 percent), information technology (4.76 percent) and IT solutions/equipment (3.96 percent). The biggest gains were made by insurance (4.28 percent), non-metallic minerals (3.37 percent) and basic metals (3.28 percent). Among the 367 shares traded, 89 gained, 244 declined and 34 ended unchanged. The top gainers were winemaker Lazaridis (16.57 percent), metals company Tzirakian Profil (15.09 percent) and the preferred shares of textile firm Cor-Fil (11.76 percent). Top losers were machinery firm Delta Project (37.80 percent), real estate developer Elviemek (28.42 percent) and Xifias Fisheries (20.69 percent). The most heavily traded shares were those of Alpha Bank, with an average turnover of 10.72 million euros per session. They were followed by lottery and pools firm OPAP (7.76 million) and Public Power Corporation (6.98 million).
