Climb to 4,900 points trips on profit-taking
Profit-taking eliminated early gains which had driven Greek stocks to a new 86-month high during trading yesterday. After nudging close to 4,900 points, the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed 0.07 percent down at 4,864.66 points, as liquidations spread from selected blue chips to the lower capitalizations. The FTSE/ATHEX 20 blue chip index ended 0.09 percent higher at 2,616.98 points. The FTSE/ATHEX Mid-40 was unchanged at 6,131.80 points, and the FTSE/ATHEX 80 small-cap index was up 0.22 to a new seven-year high of 1,020.24 points. Banks led blue chip gains. Postal Savings outperformed, advancing 3.98 percent, Bank of Cyprus continued its ascent 1.52 percent to reach a new historic high of -13.40 euros and ATEbank was 1.49 percent higher. OTE telecom was up 1.10 percent and Intralot gained 1.03 percent. Banks Emporiki, National and Eurobank, Hellenic Technodomiki and refiners Hellenic Petroleum and Motor Oil also headed north. By contrast, Viohalco stumbled 2.59 percent lower after reports of falling copper prices in Shanghai and Alpha Bank shed 1.85 percent. Piraeus Bank, Titan, Coca-Cola HBC, Cosmote and Folli-Follie also ended in negative territory. Turnover totaled -346.08 million, with banks National and Alpha accounting for -69.2 million.
