Rallying blue chips reverse early losses
Stocks ended almost unchanged yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), thanks to a late rally of certain blue chips, despite the bad climate on other European markets. The ASE compound share index closed at 3,902.89 points, a drop of 1.07 points or 0.03 percent. Earlier in the session, the index was off 0.76 percent. The FTSE/ASE 20 index of blue chips gained 0.21 percent to close at 2,125.78 points, while mid-caps and small-caps declined 0.98 percent and 0.02 percent respectively. The FTSE/Athex International closed at 5,495.08 points, down 0.04 percent. Among blue chips, the biggest gainers were technology firm Intracom (up 2.47 percent to 4.98 euros), telecoms firm OTE (2.28 percent to 18.86 euros), Public Power Corporation (1.58 percent to 19.34 euros) and National Bank (1.23 percent to 32.80 euros). By contrast, the biggest losers were refiner Motor Oil (down 1.94 percent to 21.18 euros), cement maker Titan (1.36 percent to 37.68 euros) and Alpha Bank (1.25 percent to 20.46 euros). Of the 306 traded shares, 108 gained, 138 declined and 60 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 238.04 million euros, including 55.47 million in prearranged trades. The biggest trading stocks, by turnover, were OTE (61.01 million euros), National Bank (16.94 million) and OPAP (15.74 million).
