Market rises despite sale run on small-caps
Stocks gained yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), despite profit-taking in small-capitalization firms which have carried the market the previous days. The ASE general index closed at 3,658.17 points, a gain of 20.33 points or 0.56 percent, matching exactly Wednesday’s decline. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips gained 0.67 percent to close at 2,014.64 points. Mid-caps gained 0.65 percent and small-caps declined 1.66 percent. Among blue chips, significant gains were made by cement producer Titan (up 4.92 percent to 34.98 euros), ATEBank (2.87 percent to 5.02 euros), telecommunications equipment manufacturer Intracom (2.57 percent to 5.58 euros), Emporiki Bank (2.35 percent to 28.76 euros), betting company OPAP (1.07 percent to 28.26 euros) and refiner Motor Oil (1.02 percent to 19.90 euros). Of the 329 traded shares, 124 gained, 158 declined and 47 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 189.80 million euros, including 23.30 million in prearranged trades. Among the latter, the biggest involved a transfer of 2 million shares of investment firm Alpha Trust Andromeda at 2.83 euros apiece and a block of 3,418,000 shares of Piraeus Real Estate Investments at 2.33 euros per share.
