Market keeps diving as investors sell banks
Stocks declined for the fourth session in a row yesterday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), dipping below 4,700 points, as banks came under heavy selling pressure. The ASE composite share index closed at 4,688.54 points, a drop of 16.49 points or 0.35 percent. On a weekly basis, it declined 1.91 percent, limiting this year’s gains to 6.70 percent. The FTSE/ASE 20 index of blue chips declined 0.56 percent to close at 2,545.79 points. Mid-caps declined 0.03 percent and small-caps gained 0.33 percent. The FTSE/Athex International declined 0.45 percent, closing at 6,713.34 points. Ten out of 17 sectoral indices declined. The top gainers were chemicals (up 2.98 percent), food and beverages (1.49 percent) and technology (1.46 percent). The top losers were financial services (down 1.78 percent), industrial goods and services (1.13 percent) and banks (0.87 percent). Among blue chips, the top gainers were bottler Coca-Cola HBC (1.93 percent to 30.58), refiner Motor Oil (1.09 percent to 20.46) and Alpha Bank (1.46 percent to 30.48). Top losers were games of chance software and hardware provider Intralot (2.36 percent to 25.60), EFG Eurobank (2.05 percent to 29.68) and metals group Viohalco (2.04 percent to 9.62). Turnover reached -437.11 million, including -28.79 million in prearranged trades.
