Losses in OTE drag ASE index 0.77 percent down
Steep losses in index heavyweight OTE Telecom dragged the Athens bourse 0.77 percent lower yesterday, as the broader market ended with light losses, in its sixth straight slide. «There was some large sell orders in OTE which looked to come from abroad. It was a bad day for telecoms but there is nothing really to justify such a steep drop,» said a broker. OTE fell 3.07 percent to 17.68 euros and subsidiary CosmOTE ended off 0.70 percent at 11.36 euros. Cellular operator Panafon fell 1.27 percent to 6.20 euros. The Athens bourse benchmark general index ended at 2,527.34 points, ending the week 2.6 percent, or 68.37 points, lower. «If it wasn’t for the selling of OTE (shares), the market looked like it was ready for a better performance,» said George Costopoulos, analyst at Solidus Securities. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips slipped 0.70 percent to 1,372.49 points and the FTSE/ASE-40 index of mid-caps eased 0.54 percent. Small-caps lost 0.47 percent. Turnover was 146.22 million euros on volume of 16.9 million shares. (Reuters)
