ASE rally to 5-year high
The Athens Stock Exchange general index closed last Friday at 3,629.98 points, a gain of 117.16 points or 3.34 percent on the previous week’s close, reaching levels last seen on December 15, 2000. Turnover rose to 1.29 billion euros, an average of 258.36 million euros per session, from 188.36 million the previous week. All Financial Times indices gained, with small-caps outperforming. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips gained 3.45 percent to close at 2,014.72 points, the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 went up 4.30 percent to close at 3,208.02 points and the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 gained 4.49 percent. The composite FTSE/ASE-140 index gained 3.59 percent to close at 4,266.12 points. Fifteen of the 18 sectoral indices ended with gains last week. The exceptions were real estate (0.28 percent), foods and beverages (0.12 percent) and textiles (0.04 percent). The top gainers were insurance (10.52 percent), basic metal (7.21 percent) and wholesale commerce (4.89 percent). Among individual titles, the top gainers were Vivere (38.10 percent), Maritime of Lesvos (31.11 percent), VIS (30.22 percent), Axon Holdings (22.68 percent) and Altec (21.98 percent). Top losers were PC Systems (20 percent), Promota Hellas (17.65 percent), Viosol’s preferred shares (13.64 percent), Euclides (13.04 percent) and Fitco (10.26 percent). National Bank topped the list of the most heavily traded shares, with an average turnover of 41.62 million euros per session. It was trailed by OPAP (24.98 million), OTE (23.09 million) and Alpha Bank (15.16 million).
