ASE’s 3,400-point level couldn’t be sustained
Greek stocks recorded a mild correction yesterday after cumulative gains of 6.07 percent in eight consecutive previous sessions. The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index ended 0.39 percent lower at 3,390.20 points. Turnover shot up to 561.28 million euros. Of this, about 302 million represented the private placement to institutional investors via accelerated bookbuilding of 9.2 million shares of the National Bank of Greece (2.76 percent of share capital) at 32.90 euros per share. Profit-taking affected most major blue chips, especially banks, whose sectoral index closed 0.45 percent lower. The five small banks, however, Piraeus, Geniki, Attica, Aspis and Cyprus, headed north. But ATE Bank shed 4.43 percent after recent steep gains. The losers included OTE telecom, the two listed oil refiners, Hellenic Petroleum and Motor Oil, gaming firm OPAP, Titan Cement, Coca-Cola HBC, Germanos, Intracom, Viohalco and Hellenic Technodomiki. The list of winners also included CosmOTE, Public Power Corporation, Intralot, Aluminium of Greece, Duty Free Shops, Folli-Follie and Hyatt. Insurance led sectoral indices with gains of 3.43 percent. Information technology climbed 2.22 percent. Refineries was down 1.63 percent.
