Vast majority of stocks under selling pressure
Stocks continued their decline for a third session yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), with the general index tumbling below 2,900 points. Trade remained brisk. The ASE general index closed at 2,879.70 points, a drop of 33.17 points or 1.14 percent. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 1.17 percent to close at 1,587.57 points, while mid-caps and small-caps fell 0.80 percent and 1.75 percent respectively. All big banks came under heavy selling pressure and dropped: Emporiki shed 2.82 percent to close at 23.46 euros and was followed by National (down 1.72 percent to 25.14 euros), Piraeus (1.71 percent to 13.76 euros), EFG Eurobank (1.04 percent to 24.74 euros) and Alpha (0.63 percent to 25.06 euros). Other hard-hit blue chips included Folli-Follie (3.06 percent), OPAP (2.68 percent), Hellenic Technodomiki TEV (2.65 percent), Hellenic Petroleum (2.31 percent) and Titan (2.01 percent). By contrast, OTE Telecom and its mobile telecommunications subsidiary, CosmOTE, bucked the trend, gaining 0.88 percent and 0.14 percent respectively. Of 357 traded stocks, 51 gained, 253 declined and 53 ended unchanged. Turnover declined to 218.79 million euros, including 12.92 million in prearranged trades.
