Blue chips keep drawing on small-cap liquidity
Greek stocks shed most their initial gains yesterday but confirmed a trend of a significant shift of liquidity to blue chips, with just two of them, National Bank and lottery operator OPAP, accounting for just under a third of total turnover. They were both 0.81 percent higher. But Titan Cement was the blue chip outperformer, surging 4.49 percent higher. Motor Oil added 1.47 percent, Duty Free Shops, which on Thursday announced a 250-million-euro acquisitions plan, ended 1.07 percent higher. Eurobank, Germanos, Hellenic Petroleum and Folli-Follie also ended in positive territory. In contrast, ATEbank, Viohalco, Cosmote and Intracom all lost more than 1 percent, while Alpha Bank, Emporiki, Piraeus Bank, Public Power Corporation, Coca-Cola HBC and OTE headed south. The Athens Stock Exchange general index ended up 0.13 percent at 4,080.89 points, after coming close to 4,100 points three times. The blue chip index closed 0.27 percent higher, whereas mid- and small-caps ended down 0.30 percent and 0.33 percent respectively. Publisher Naftemporiki was up 7.65 percent on an announcement that it is talking with German publishing group WAZ about a possible cooperation. Turnover surged to 416.22 billion euros.
