Decline ends as banks rebound
Stocks on the local bourse reversed the negative trend of the last few sessions to post moderate gains yesterday, thanks to investor interest in blue chips, particularly National and Alpha banks. The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index rose to 2,686.21 points yesterday, climbing by 0.62 percent from Thursday’s close at 2,669.63 points. The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index jumped by 0.58 percent to end at 1,430.56 points. Titan cement once again outperformed blue chips, with a rise of 5.24 percent. It was followed by National Bank (up 3.65 percent), Hellenic Petroleum (2.98 percent), Alpha Bank (2.07 percent) and Coca-Cola Hellenic (1.70 percent). Worst off were Hellenic Postbank (down 4.31 percent) and Bank of Cyprus (4.05 percent). Turnover amounted to 289.8 million euros, down from 457.4 million euros in the previous session.
