Narrow ride to new high
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index closed at a year-high of 2,647.06 points on Friday, a gain of 23.93 points or 0.91 percent on the previous week’s close. (Unfortunately, total weekly turnover figures are not available, since Greek Kathimerini’s service erroneously published the previous week’s.) Among Financial Times indices, the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips gained 1.08 percent to close at 1,459.83 points. The FTSE/ASE Mid-40 and the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 shed 0.32 percent and 2.45 percent, respectively, while the composite FTSE/ASE-140 index gained 0.69 percent. Ten of the 18 sectoral indices declined. The biggest losers were wholesale commerce (4.58 percent), textiles (4 percent), insurance (3.35 percent) and IT solutions and equipment (2.49 percent). The biggest gainers were refineries (5.21 percent), information technology (1.55 percent), banks (1.42 percent) and retail commerce (1.25 percent). Of the 369 individual titles traded, 90 gained, 247 declined and 32 ended unchanged. The biggest gainers were the preferred shares of Alisida (25.13 percent) and Viosol (24.14 percent), followed by the common stock of Viosol (18.18 percent) and Minerva (12.21 percent). The biggest decliners were Domus Investments (39.81 percent), Elmec Sport (30.62 percent), Eurodrip (24.41 percent) and Vernicos (21.75 percent). The most heavily traded stocks were those of National Bank, with an average turnover of 19.06 million euros per session, mobile telecommunications firm Cosmote (16.27 million) and OTE (16.24 million).
