Correction continues as blue chips wane
Greek stocks headed south for a second straight day yesterday, amid a negative mood on foreign bourses and with clear signs of «fatigue» among blue chips. The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index closed 0.64 percent lower at 4,038.13 points, after remaining in negative territory throughout the session. Only two blue chips, Emporiki Bank and Folli-Follie, headed north, with respective gains of 0.54 percent and 0.95 percent. The blue chip FTSE/ASE 20 index ended 0.77 percent lower, the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 bucked the trend by edging 0.10 percent higher, while the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 lost 0.35 percent. Among blue chips, Coca-Cola shed 1.81 percent, Viohalco dropped 1.80 percent, Motor Oil slid 1.54 percent, Titan ended 1.42 percent lower, OTE lost 1.23 percent and Alpha Bank slipped 1.13 percent. Germanos ended unchanged. Insurance, personal & household products, raw materials and financial services were the only sectoral indices that ended higher. Turnover dropped to 255.19 million euros, of which 76.4 million was accounted for by banks National, Alpha and Cyprus, along with OTE. Analysts expressed the view that it will be hard for the general index to retain the 4,000-point mark if the correction continues abroad.
