Mid-caps help ASE
The Athens Stock Exchange’s (ASE) composite price index gained 0.16 percent last week, closing at 2,225.14 points on Friday. The total weekly volume of trading reached 434.2 million euros – a daily average of 86.8 million. Buying interest was focused on midsized and small capitalization, reflecting on the FTSE/ASE Mid-40 and FTSE/ASE Small-Cap 80 indices which gained 3.6 percent and 3.09 percent respectively. By contrast, the blue chip FTSE/ASE-20 index declined 0.93 percent. Among sectoral indices, 10 made gains and six fell. Publishing & Printing headed the winners’ list with 8.58 percent, followed by Wholesale Commerce with 6.6 percent and Textiles with 6.22 percent. Construction gained 4.21 percent, the Parallel Market 4.1 percent, Retail Commerce 3.64 percent, and IT Equipment-Solutions 2.64 percent. Among the laggards, the Insurance and Banks indices fared worst, declining 2.74 and 2.12 percent respectively. Of the 371 stocks traded, 272 moved higher, 87 fell and 12 remained put. The biggest weekly gains were made by Iaso maternity hospital, which rose 27.24 percent and Fitco, which gained 24.32 percent. The biggest losers were Radio Athinai retailers and ANEK (PR, 90) coastal shipping company, which dropped 14.63 percent of their value each. Viosol (PR) lost 11.43 percent for the week and Rainbow Computer 11.4 percent.The most heavily traded stocks were National Bank, with 7.7 million euros, Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) with 4.1 million euros, Alpha Bank, with 3.5 million euros and Sex-Form, with 3.8 million euros. A day after the Georgakopoulos committee unveiled its recommendations for public discussion, Christodoulakis in essence discredited its efforts and started working on his own, more socially focused tax reform proposals.
