Stocks rise; Coke bottler in top spot
Selective blue chip buying helped to lift Greek stocks 0.67 percent yesterday, once more reclaiming the 1,500-point mark, as Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH) outperformed. The Athens bourse’s benchmark general index added 0.67 percent to 1,507.79 points, ending the overall week 2.6 percent lower. The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index advanced 0.61 percent to 719.68 points. CCH jumped 2.09 percent to 19.50 euros, pushing its market capitalization to 7.13 billion euros and becoming the most expensive company on the Athens bourse. National Bank comes in second place with a market value of 7.07 billion euros. Its shares added 0.27 percent to 7.40 euros. Other blue chip winners were construction group Ellaktor, which added 2.15 percent to 3.32 euros, and ATEbank, which ended the day at 0.84 euros, up 7.69 percent. OTE telecom added to Thursday’s 1.40 percent boost by climbing 1.21 percent to 5.87 euros. On Thursday, it unveiled better-than-expected third-quarter net profits of 126.3 million euros, down 23.5 percent from the same period last year. Piraeus Bank eased 0.30 percent to 3.30 euros and Bank of Cyprus slipped 0.60 percent to 3.32 euros. Turnover reached 112.4 million euros, versus 116 million euros in the previous session.
