Foreign players cut holdings
Foreign investors reduced their positions on the Athens bourse by 382 million euros last month, trimming their stake to 47.8 percent of the market’s free float versus 51.8 percent a year earlier, according to data made public yesterday. Figures from Hellenic Exchanges, the holding group that operates the Athens bourse, showed domestic investors had placed a net 290 million euros in the market. For the whole of 2008, foreign investors were net sellers, with outflows reaching 3.6 billion euros. The average daily trading volume in December fell to 128.7 million euros from 207.4 million in November and 414 million in the same month a year earlier. Month-on-month, the Greek equity market’s total capitalization fell 5.2 percent in December to 69 billion euros – representing about 28 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Year-on-year the market’s value fell 64.9 percent.
