Volatile session ends with a slight gain
Stocks gained ground yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange, in a volatile session. The ASE composite share price index closed at 3,692.41 points, a gain of 15.56 points or 0.42 percent. On a weekly basis, it declined 2.55 percent. The market started strongly, gaining as much as 1.76 percent and approaching 3,740 points. At that point, many investors started selling to keep their short-term profits. The index fell into negative territory (-0.53 percent) before rallying. The FTSE/ASE 20 index of blue chips gained 0.52 percent to close at 1,984.73 points, while mid- and small-caps gained 0.44 percent and 0.40 percent respectively. The FTSE/Athex International index gained 0.51 percent, to close at 5,160.99 points. Investor interest was mostly focused on National Bank, which followed the market’s ups and downs for the greater part of the session. It ended up sliding 0.96 percent to 31.08 euros. It was joined in the losses column by refiner Motor Oil (3.75 percent to 21.02 euros), jewelry maker and retailer Folli Follie (1.94 percent to 20.20 euros) and cement maker Titan (1.37 percent to 40.20 euros). Out of 305 traded shares, 128 gained, 109 declined and 68 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 276.78 million euros, including 26.93 million in prearranged trades.
