Blue chips set index records
Greek stocks continue to break one record after another, once again moving to levels unseen for the last seven-and-a-half years, helped mainly by banks, financial service stocks and food and drink companies. On Friday the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index was up 0.39 percent from the previous day, closing at 5,273.64 points from 5,252.99 points on Thursday. On a weekly basis the index gained 1.61 percent, while since the start of the years its gains have exceeded 20 percent (20.02 percent). Compared with Thursday, the blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index grew by 0.56 percent, reaching 2,802.96 points. The mid-cap FTSE/ATHEX 40 index gained 0.41 percent, while the small-cap FTSE/ATHEX 80 index declined by 0.10 percent. The FTSE/ATHEX International closed up 0.52 percent at 7,503.62 points. The National Bank of Greece in particular has bolstered the general index, on Friday closing at 47 euros, a weekly rise of 7.55 percent. The stock’s prospects for the short term continue to be favorable. It is one of the few stocks, mostly blue chips, that has been rising significantly of late as the market follows the positive sentiment across the world. What strong market players are interested in now is securing the low-cost inflow of capital and refunding their existing positions in order to make gains as they head toward the end of the financial year. Due to a technical problem, the listings below present the figures at the end of Thursday’s trading session on the ATHEX, instead of Friday’s.
