ASE ends losing run but turnover drops sharply
Greek share prices ended a losing run of six consecutive sessions yesterday, helped by positive sentiment in foreign markets. Although turnover rose for blue chips and mid-caps, and buyers outnumbered sellers, total turnover fell substantially from 174.7 million euros on Wednesday to 122.6 million. The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index gained 0.70 percent to close at 2,852.80 points. Of the 338 stocks traded, 165 rose, 91 declined and 82 share prices remained unchanged. Both the blue chip FTSE/ASE 20 and the FTSE/ASE Mid-Cap 40 indices gained 0.67 percent. Small-caps were up 0.79 percent. All sectoral indices but information technology ended on positive ground, with refineries outperforming at 1.88 percent on 3.49 percent gains by Hellenic Petroleum. Construction, wholesale commerce, IT equipment-solutions and real estate also performed well. Public Power Corporation advanced 2 percent, mobile operator CosmOTE 1.71 percent, Alpha Bank 1.50 percent, and gaming firm OPAP 1.32 percent. The combined turnover of the four most marketable securities, OPAP, OTE Telecom, Alpha Bank and Eurobank was about 65 million euros, more than half of the total.
