Investors on the hunt for bank, telecom stocks
Stocks gained yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) for the third session in a row, as investors chased bank and telecom stocks. The ASE composite share price index closed at 4,148.78 points, a gain of 32.51 points or 0.79 percent. The FTSE/Athex 20 index of blue chips gained 0.91 percent to close at 2,270.10 points, while mid-caps and small-caps gained 0.59 and 1.77 percent respectively. The FTSE/Athex International index gained 0.90 percent, closing at 5,743.62 points. EFG Eurobank led all blue chips, on the back of a favorable report setting a share target price of 44 euros. Eurobank gained 3.96 percent to close at 33.06 euros. Other gainers included ATEBank (up 3.83 percent to 5.96 euros), Piraeus Bank (2.55 percent to 21.74 euros), mobile telecommunications service provider Cosmote (2.32 percent to 19.44 euros), telecommunications company OTE (1.63 percent to 18.68 euros), cement producer Titan (1.34 percent to 37.70 euros) and bottler Coca-Cola HBC (1.10 percent to 25.74 euros). By contrast, losses were sustained by metals group Viohalco (down 2.40 percent to 9.74 euros) and Duty Free Shops (2.07 percent to 16.06 euros). Of 318 traded shares, 196 gained, 82 declined and 40 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 241.15 million euros, including 5.03 million in prearranged trades.
