Index rise surges on, thanks to blue chips
There seems to be no stopping Greek stocks, as blue chips pulled the general index higher for the eighth session in a row and the National Bank of Greece registered a new historic high. The general index of the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) climbed 0.71 percent higher from Friday’s 5,001.26 points to close at 5,036.69 points yesterday. The FTSE/ATHEX 20 blue chip index gained 0.73 percent to close at 2,676.30 points and the FTSE/ATHEX Mid-40 was up 0.61 percent. Nevertheless, the FTSE/ATHEX 80 small-cap index declined by 0.32 percent. The FTSE/ATHEX International index added 0.67 percent to reach 7,188.61 points. The movement of interest from small-caps to mid-caps and blue chips was evident in the last two hours of the session and is expected to continue. Outperforming among blue chips were the stocks of Hellenic Technodomiki TEV (up 2.99 percent), PPC (2.23 percent), OTE telecom (2.21 percent) and ATEbank (2.03 percent). Most sectoral indices posted gains, too, led by chemicals (up 4.64 percent), utilities (2.35 percent), telecommunications (1.43 percent) and mass media (1.03 percent). The biggest losers were technology (down 0.74 percent) and insurance (0.47 percent). Turnover totaled -464 million, of which -60.65 million concerned block trades.
