Market continues to push toward new highs
Stocks gained for the sixth session in a row on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) yesterday, in a session marked, once again, by very heavy turnover, but also by the selling of small-capitalization shares. The ASE composite share price index closed at 3,877.23 points, a gain of 32.44 points or 0.84 percent. During the session, it reached a high of 3,905.77 points. The FTSE/Athex 20 index of blue chips gained 0.88 percent to close at 2,140.64 points. Mid-caps gained 1.15 percent and small-caps declined 0.73 percent. The new FTSE/Athex International index gained 0.88 percent to close at 5,303.51 points. Among blue chips, refiner Motor Oil gained 3.83 percent, closing at 21.70 euros, on the back of a UBS report raising its target price to 24.60 euros from 23.10 previously. By contrast, the Swiss bank lowered its target price for refiner Hellenic Petroleum from 16.90 euros to 13.40, resulting in the latter’s dropping 2.12 percent to close at 12 euros. Several other blue chips, notably Alpha Bank, OPAP and Intracom, made significant gains. Of the 327 traded shares, 100 gained, 179 declined and 48 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 606.55 million euros, including 187.51 million in prearranged trades.
