Stocks halt 11-session slide as banks rebound
Firm telecoms helped lift Greek stocks 1.29 percent higher yesterday, pulling the brake on an 11-session slide as selling pressure in banks eased after the sector took a hammering on first-quarter profit concerns. «It was an overdue technical reaction. Greek institutionals today looked like they were convinced that banks had bottomed out and this made the difference,» said Annie Triantafyllou, head analyst at National Securities. The Athens bourse benchmark general index closed at 2,228.76 points, ending the week with an overall loss of 2.2 percent or 51.96 points. Banks gained 0.55 percent while the country’s largest, National, rose 0.19 percent to 21 euros. Alpha Bank advanced 0.74 percent to 16.42 euros. Telecom stocks outperformed, gaining 2.12 percent, while index heavyweight OTE Telecom added 1.32 percent to 16.84 euros. The FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips firmed 0.87 percent to 1,181.86 points. The FTSE/ASE-40 index of mid-caps gained 1.38 percent and small-caps rose 1.41 percent. Total turnover was 89.57 million euros on volume of 17.4 million shares. (Reuters) There is no particular cause for concern about fuel prices as reserves are adequate, Development Minister Akis Tsochadzopoulos said yesterday. He forecast that the present upward pressures on oil prices are only transient.
