Profit-taking leads to slight fall; mid-caps up
Stocks declined slightly yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), bucking the general trend in European markets, as investors locked in gains in blue chips. Some buying interest was expressed for selected medium-capitalization stocks. The ASE general index closed at 3,300.24 points, a decline of 10.26 points or 0.31 percent. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 0.33 percent to close at 1,846.88 points. Mid-caps gained 0.43 percent and small-caps declined 0.38 percent. Among blue chips, there were significant gains by Emporiki Bank (up 2.12 percent to 26 euros) and bottler Coca-Cola HBC (1.18 percent to 24.06 euros). By contrast, betting company OPAP fell 1.83 percent to 25.78 euros, OTE Telecom 1.39 percent to 17.04 euros, electronics retailer Germanos 1.29 percent to 13.82 euros, and mobile communications provider CosmOTE 0.75 percent to 15.92 euros. Almost all «small» banks also gained: ATE Bank (formerly Agricultural Bank of Greece) was up 3.09 percent, Bank of Attica 3.04 percent, Bank of Cyprus 2.45 percent and Geniki Bank 2.35 percent. Of 330 traded stocks, 111 gained, 149 declined and 70 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 166.75 million euros, including 36.2 million in prearranged trade.
