Banks provide momentum
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) composite share price index closed last Friday at 3,918.19 points, a gain of 62.98 points, or 1.63 percent, on the previous week’s close. Turnover rose to 1.46 billion euros, an average of 291.59 million euros per session, from 233.67 million the previous week. All major indices gained: The FTSE/Athex 20 index of blue chips rose 2.37 percent to close at 2,135.34 points; the FTSE/Athex Mid-40 added 1.17 percent to close at 4,237.93 points; the FTSE/Athex Small-Cap 80 increased 2.73 percent to close at 792.01 points; the composite FTSE/Athex 140 index went up 2.16 percent to close at 4,708.73 points, and the FTSE/Athex International index gained 2.15 percent to close at 5,518.63 points. Twelve of the 17 sectoral indices gained ground. Top gainers were health (12.27 percent), banks (2.97 percent) and personal and household products (2.46 percent). Top losers were oil and gas (1.70 percent), insurance (1.69 percent) and technology (1.38 percent). Among individual titles, the top gainers were the preferred (1990) stock of ANEK (67.14 percent), and the common stock of Domiki Kritis (33.08 percent) and Hellatex (29.03 percent). Top losers were ETMA (19.43 percent), Paperpack-Tsoukaridis (11.50 percent) and Logismos (9.85 percent). National Bank topped the list of the most heavily traded shares, with an average turnover of 68.31 million euros per session. It was trailed by OPAP (29.93 million), OTE (20.81 million), EFG Eurobank (15.68 million) and Alpha Bank (13.45 million).