Telecoms lead index above 4,500 points
Stocks gained for the third session in a row yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), thanks to buoyant telecoms listings, despite a downward trend in other European markets. The ASE compound share index closed at 4,536.69 points, a gain of 45.02 points or 1 percent. The FTSE/ASE 20 index of blue chips gained 0.96 percent to close at 2,463.88 points, while mid- and small-caps gained 0.33 percent and 0.28 percent respectively. The FTSE/Athex International gained 0.87 percent, closing at 6,471.12 points. Twelve out of 17 sectoral indices posted gains. The top gainers were insurance (up 3.83 percent), telecommunications (3.43 percent) and food and beverages (1.99 percent). The top losers were media (down 1.19 percent), industrial goods and services (0.78 percent) and raw materials (0.61 percent). Among blue chips, the top gainers were telecommunications firm OTE (up 3.45 percent to -24.00), its mobile telecoms subsidiary Cosmote (3.33 percent to -22.98), bottler Coca-Cola HBC (2.76 percent to -29.80), refiner Hellenic Petroleum (2.16 percent to -11.34), Public Power Corporation (1.30 percent to -20.30) and Alpha Bank (1.26 percent to -24.20). Turnover reached -350.81 million, including -26.31 million in prearranged trades.
