Index stays above 2,200 pts despite banks’ blow
Selective buying in utilities and telecom stocks softened the blow from sliding banks on the Athens bourse yesterday, with the general index ending lower but above the psychologically important 2,200-point level. Banks dropped another 2.13 percent at the close, with Alpha, Greece’s second largest bank, off 5.27 percent after trading ex-dividend to 16.54 euros. The Athens benchmark general index lost 0.53 percent to close at 2,201.33 points. «We saw some resilience at 2,200 points but we don’t know how long that will hold. Volume is low, which makes it weak as a support level,» said head analyst Spyros Koutras at Nexus Securities. Total turnover was 83.42 million euros on 16.2 million shares traded. «What was positive about today’s session is that we saw a comeback from losses of 1 percent earlier. It seems the market wants to stabilize,» said analyst Elias Lazaris at Artion Securities. The FTSE/ASE index of blue chips lost 1.16 percent to 1,173.81 points. The FTSE/ASE-40 index of mid-caps shed 0.12 percent and small-caps 0.02 percent. (Reuters) Casino fortunes grow
