Blue chips lead losses
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index closed last Thursday at 2,868.45 points, a decline of 63.31 points or 2.16 percent on the previous week’s close. The week was shortened by the Easter holiday. The ASE resumes trading today. Turnover dropped significantly, to 524.33 million euros, an average of 131.08 million per session, from 150.33 million the previous week. All FTSE indices lost ground. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 2.82 percent to close at 1,590 points, while the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 and the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 declined 0.33 percent and 1.31 percent respectively. The composite FTSE/ASE-140 index declined 2.46 percent, closing at 3,350.06 points. Twelve of the 18 sectoral indices followed the general index lower. The top gainers were foods and beverages (1.80 percent), wholesale commerce (0.69 percent) and industrials (0.64 percent). Top losers were IT solutions and equipment (5.38 percent), banks (4.01 percent) and investment firms (1.72 percent). Of 345 traded stocks, 112 gained, 195 declined and 38 ended unchanged. Individual gainers were led by Logismos (18.87 percent), followed by Themeliodomi (15.38 percent), and Elviemek (13.89 percent). Top losers were MLS Informatics (25.69 percent), followed by the preferred and common shares of Petzetakis (25.26 percent and 17.78 percent respectively). CosmOTE was the most heavily traded stock, with an average turnover of 20.09 million euros per session, followed by National Bank (13.98 million), Alpha Bank (13.65 million) OPAP (12.04 million) and PPC (9.52 million).
