Third day of losses for stocks
Stocks continued their decline on the Greek bourse for the third day in succession yesterday, as the market awaited news on the share capital increase by National Bank and rumors about major developments in the banking sector began to weigh on investor sentiment. Turnover, however, did head a notch higher. The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,563.36 points, declining by 1.53 percent from Monday’s close at 1,587.66 points. The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index gave up 1.94 percent to end at 757.35 points. The only blue chip to post gains yesterday was Hellenic Petroleum (up 2.01 percent), while Ellaktor was a non-mover. Marfin Investment Group was the worst off, with a drop of 5.32 percent, followed by Piraeus Bank (down 5 percent), Eurobank EFG (3.50 percent) and Marfin Popular Bank (3.09 percent), while National Bank fell 1.59 percent. A total of 44 stocks went up, 126 headed south and 41 remained unchanged. Edrasi led the gainers with a 14.29 percent rise, while Optronics Technologies posted the biggest losses (down 20 percent). Turnover came to 94.6 million euros, up from Monday’s 57.5 million.
