Blue chips lose steam; small-caps buck trend
Blue chips led the Greek stock market lower in much thinner trade yesterday, against the overall positive mood in other European markets. Small-caps, however, bucked the trend. The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index ended down 0.49 percent at 4,757.77 points. The blue chip FTSE/ASE 20 index lost 0.42 percent, the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 slid 0.19 percent and the FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 ended 0.52 percent higher. Metals group Viohalco outperformed among blue chips, surging 4.73 percent to a more than 12-month high of 11.06 euros. Emporiki Bank seemed to awaken from a recent slump, ascending 3.99 percent. Titan cement was up 1.34 percent. ATEbank, Folli-Follie, Motor Oil, Hellenic Petroleum and banks Cyprus, Piraeus and Postal Savings also ended higher. By contrast, Coca-Cola HBC led blue chip decliners, shedding 2.31 percent, OTE was 2.09 percent lower and Intralot lost 2.04 percent. Hellenic Technodomiki ended down 1.40 percent and Public Power Corporation was 1.33 percent leaner. Ten of the 17 sectoral indices headed south, while winners were led by industrial products and services (up 3.14 percent). Turnover dropped to -318.566 million, of which -104.8 million was accounted for by banks National, Marfin Popular and Alpha.
