A slight decline while investors watch the Fed
Stocks declined slightly yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), with investors across Europe waiting for the US Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to increase interest rates. The ASE general index closed at 3,531.25 points, a drop of 7.19 points or 0.20 percent. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips declined 0.22 percent to close at 1,957.57 points. Mid-caps declined 0.02 percent and small-caps gained 0.25 percent. Among blue chips, the heaviest losses were sustained by electricity company PPC (2.01 percent to 17.52 euros), refiner Hellenic Petroleum (1.98 percent to 11.90 euros), Duty Free Shops (1.97 percent to 14.32 euros), refiner Motor Oil (1.25 percent to 19.54 euros) and telecommunications company OTE (1.23 percent to 17.60 euros). By contrast, gains were posted by cement producer Titan (2.64 percent to 33.46 euros), construction group Hellenic Technodomiki (1.83 percent to 4.46 euros), mobile telecommunications service provider Cosmote (0.76 percent to 18.60 euros), National Bank (0.63 percent to 34.90 euros) and bottler Coca-Cola HBC (0.42 percent to 24.12 euros). Of the 320 traded shares, 125 gained, 146 declined and 49 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 205.42 million euros, including 18.26 million in prearranged trades.
