Market fails again to hold on to early gains
For the second session in a row, stocks ended up almost unchanged on the Athens Stock Exchange yesterday, having failed to hold on to early gains. The ASE compound share index closed at 3,933.51 points, a gain of 2.59 points or 0.07 percent. During the session, it went as high as 3,958.92 points, a gain of 0.65 percent. The FTSE/Athex 20 index of blue chips gained 0.03 percent to close at 2,151.48 points. Mid-caps gained 0.40 percent and small-caps declined 1.03 percent. The FTSE/Athex International gained 0.10 percent, closing at 5,577.69 points. Among blue chips, the biggest gainers were jewelry and accessories maker and retailer Folli-Follie (2.69 percent to 22.90 euros), Duty Free Shops (1.69 percent to 13.22 euros), technology holding company Intracom (1.65 percent to 4.94 euros), mobile telecommunications service provider Cosmote (1.08 percent to 18.80 euros) and Alpha Bank (1.06 percent to 21.02 euros). Out of 309 traded stocks, 89 gained, 178 declined and 42 ended unchanged. Turnover reached 243.26 million euros, including 40.46 million in prearranged trades. The most heavily traded firms, by turnover, were betting firm OPAP (29.41 million euros), National Bank (19.36 million) and EFG Eurobank (16.25 million).
