Slight overall decline; Emporiki outperforms
Stocks dropped yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), as investors locked in gains across the board. The ASE general index closed at 3,428.61 points, a fall of 13.59 points or 0.39 percent. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 0.18 percent to close at 1,920.69 points, while mid- and small-caps gave back 0.86 percent and 0.70 percent respectively. Investor interest once again focused on Emporiki Bank, which gained 3.27 percent to close at 23.98 euros. Other blue chips that registered gains included EFG Eurobank (up 2.25 percent to a year-high 28.16 euros), mobile telecommunications carrier CosmOTE (1.15 percent to 17.66 euros) and Alpha Bank (1.04 percent to 25.32 euros). By contrast, significant losses were sustained by construction firm Hellenic Technodomiki (down 3.79 percent), refiners Hellenic Petroleum and Motor Oil (3.69 percent and 1.84 percent, respectively) and betting company OPAP (2.49 percent). Of 337 traded stocks, 83 gained, 197 declined and 57 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 184.63 million euros, including 34.5 million in prearranged trades. A large slice of the latter came through the transfer of 996,760 AB Vassilopoulos shares (7.82 percent of total) at 11.40 euros per share.
