Market barely budges for a second session
Stocks ended nearly unchanged for the second session in a row yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), with the market failing to follow European bourses in their recovery, just as it failed to follow their decline on Monday. This time, investors were held back by an announcement from global stock index compiler FTSE that it had added Greece to its watch list for a possible downgrade as part of an annual country classification review. The ASE compound share index closed at 3,905.03 points, a gain of 2.14 points or 0.05 percent. The FTSE/ASE 20 index of blue chips gained 0.29 percent to close at 2,131.86 points, mid-caps gained 0.06 percent and small-caps dropped 0.37 percent. The FTSE/Athex International gained 0.22 percent to close at 5,506.90. The biggest blue chip gainers were jewelry and accessories maker and retailer Folli Follie (up 2.77 percent to 21.50 euros) and Alpha Bank (2.15 percent to 20.90 euros). The biggest losers were Public Power Corporation (down 1.65 percent to 19.02 euros) and refiner Motor Oil (1.61 percent to 20.84 euros). Of the 303 traded stocks, 102 gained, 143 declined and 58 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 210.14 million euros, including 34.35 million in prearranged trades.
