Investors abstain and a new volume low is set
The first post-Olympics session of the Athens Stock Exchange was marked by investor indifference, which led to a new year-low in turnover and halt to a rising streak after five sessions. The ASE general index ended at 2,308.55 points, a drop of 12.64 points or 0.77 percent. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 0.54 percent, to 1,232.37 points. Mid- and small-caps also dropped 0.80 percent and 0.53 percent respectively. Blue chips that bucked the trend included Hellenic Technodomiki, up 3.01 percent to 3.42 euros, Alpha Bank, which rose 0.92 percent to 19.84 euros, and OTE Telecom, up 0.77 percent to 10.52 euros. Falling blue chips included Intracom (3.57 percent to 3.24 euros), the Public Power Corporation (1.81 percent to 19.58 euros) Piraeus Bank (1.72 percent to 9.12 euros) and Hellenic Petroleum (1.49 percent to 6.62 euros). Of the 346 stocks traded yesterday, 106 gained, 162 declined and 78 ended unchanged. Turnover was 41.49 million euros, including 1.63 million in a pre-arranged transfer of 157,000 OTE shares at 10.40 euros each. The bourse’s total capitalization is 79.1 billion euros.
